




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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THE NEW WEST 



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CALIFOEXIA IJlNi" 1SG7-1868 



CHARLES LOPJXG BRACE, 



AUTHOU OP 



TuK iUcEs OF THE Old WonLD ;" "Home Life in Germany;' 

IIUNQAKY IN ISjI ;" ETC., ETC. 




NEW YORK: 

G. P. PUTN^xiM & SOK, 

LONDON: N. TRUBNER & CO. 
1SG9. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
G. P. PUTNAM AND SON, 
In tlie Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for tlie 
Southern District of New York. 






PREFACE 



^^ The New West ! " Within a few years ^^ The West " 
has ceased to be the great prairie region of the Amer- 
ican Continent. The prosperous States founded there 
are now the Central States of the Union. Beyond 
those rich fields, beyond the wide and half-barren 
plains, beyond the RockyMountains, the alkaline deserts 
and the Sierra Nevada, is another region, which is 
^' The New West," Avith a different cHmate, a changed 
flora and fauna, a strange scenery, and new outline of 
landscape, novel productions, and conditions utterly 
unknoAAii to our branch of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
Here, under circumstances, in many respects more 
favorable than the Anglo-American has ever enjoyed, 
a new and poAverful community is springing up, and 
possibly a new race forming. This land is mainly 
terra incognita to Americans. 

My plan in this work is to sketch such features of 
California and her process of development, as most 
travelers have thus far neglected. In this view, I 
have taken least interest in her mining enterprises, 
but most in what is to be the basis of her future pros- 
perity — her agriculture, fruit-culture and vine-growing, 
and such undeveloped branches as silk-worm growing, 
and wine-making. 



PEEFACE. 

In treating of this latter^ I may have spoken so plain- 
ly as to offend many in the Pacific States, but they 
must remember that nothing is so much needed by an 
important branch of production, like this, in its first 
beginnings, as honest criticism. 

The treatment of the Chinese, by the lowest class, 
and the oppressive legislation upon them, have 
also been described without extenuation. The truth 
in such matters, is the best tribute a traveler can pay to 
the sense of justice of the more civilized Califomians 
who detest these abuses equally with ourselves. 

If in my outline sketches of this remarkable region 
and its vigorous people, I have given anything like my 
own impressions of the divine climate, the unique and 
awe-inspiring scenery, the singular and delightfully 
varied vegetation and productions, the enterprise, and 
intelhgence, and generosity of the population, redeem- 
ing even the facts connected with the origin of their 
civilization, and the opening presented here for the 
surplus intelHgent labor of our crowded communities, 
I shall have succeeded in my task. 

Hereafter, when a powerful and cultivated society 
has been developed on the Pacific coast, and perchance 
a new and even more enhghtened and prosperous 
Kepublic than its parent has been built up, these notes 
of its ^* Origins '' may still be preserved to show what 
were the humble and primitive foundations of so grand 
a structure of civilization and prosperity. 

CHARLES LORING BRACE. 



Hastings-upon-IIudson, 
A^pril, 1869. 



OOISTTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

The Trip to San Francisco.— Its Tleasures.— The Steamer Com- 
pany. — Savants and Explorers. — The Isthmus. — A Railroad 
through a Conservatory. — The Panama Railroad. — Steamers to 
the Isthmus. — Tea-trade. — The Pacific Voyage. — The Pacific 
Mail Steamship Company ; its Capacity and Success ; Organiz- 
ation, Economy ; its China Line ; Competition with Pacific Rail- 
road.— Exaggerated Expectations 13-28 

CHAPTER II. 

Crystal Springs Ca:non. — California Scenery. — A Romantic Ca- 
non. — The Vegetation and Small Animals. — Wild Flowers. — 
Singular Trees. — The Red Woods. — Climate. — The Coast Range. 
— Objections to it. — ^Novelty of Aspect .... 30-35 

CHAPTER III. 

San Francisco. — Difficulties of its Site. — ^A City of Flowers. — The 
Public Buildings. — Want of Parks. — The Dust. — Its invigorat- 
ing Climate. — The Key-hole Breeze. — Summer a Cool Season. — 
The Success of Universal Suffrage. — Police. — Outward Marks of 
Civilization. — Evils of Hotel-life 36-43 



VI CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER lY. 

The Future of San Francisco. — Tendency to leave the Interior 
for the Capital. — Climate favors the Citj. — Labor more Efficient 
here. — Education centers in it. — Its importance as a Center of 
Commerce. — The Connection with Asia. — A City of Expec- 
tations 44-48 



CHAPTER Y. 

Building Associations. — The Success of these Companies. — 
Laborers securing Homes. — The Prosperity of the Laboring 
Class. — Wages. — The Labor-Exchange. — Its Success. — The 
Mint. — Its Business and Small Wastage. — The Accountabilit3^ 
— Statistics. — Eight Hour-Law — Its Probable Failure. — Selling 
by Weight. — Want of Small Change. — The Manufactures of the 
City. — Splendid California Blankets. — Social Life. — Want of 
Unity. — Extravagance. — Troubles with Servants. — Evil-speak- 
ing. — Speculative Habits. — Temptations. — The Generosity of 
People. — A Droll Instance. — The Clergy and the Press . 49-73 



CHAPTER YI. 

The Public Schools. — Their Excellence. — The Object-system. 
— Girls' High School. — Faults. — Cosmopolitan School. — School- 
system superior to the New York. — Want of Teachers. — 
Salaries ... 74-80 



CHAPTER YIL 

The Big Trees. — Preparations for Trip to Yosemite. — Clothing 
needed.— Drive to Bear Yalley.— Dust.— Saddling.— The Mus- 
tangs.— The Wicked Mule.— Moonlight Ride.— Sugar Pines.— 
Clark's Ranch. — A Character. — Clothiers' Signs.— Forest- 
Master.— The Big Trees.— Mariposa Grove.— Their Number.— 
Causes of their Size. — Description. — Measurements. — Probable 
Age.— A Remarkable Flower. —The Calaveras Grove.— The 
Mother of the Forest.— Yegetation of the Foot-Hills . 81-94 



CONTENTS. VU 

CHAPTER YIII. 

The Yosemite CaS'ON. — The Morning, — Start. — California Mus- 
tangs. — A Gaj Horse. — Digger Indians. — Our Party. — The 
Guides. — Description. — The First Glimpse. — El Capitan. — The 
Brothers. — Evening Viev/. — Its Origin. — The Descent. — Twi- 
light in the Yallej.— The Inn 95-105 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Yosemite.— Mr. Ilutchings' Hotel.— An Original.— A Pretty 
English Lady. — The Atmosphere of the Yalley. — The Picture of 
Beauty. — Comparison with European Scenes. — The Yosemite 
Fall.— The Yoring Foss.— Cathedral Rock.— Bridal Yeil.— The 
Tenaya Fork. — Nevada Fall. — Excursions. — The Tuolumne 
Canon. — Mr. Hoffman's Account. — Mr. Hutchings' Claims. — The 
Departure. — The Stand- point of Silence. — Comparison of 
Routes 106-120 



CHAPTER X. 

'he Southern Mining Counties.— Journey from Mariposa to 
Calaveras. — Great Quartz Yein. — Tertiary Deposits. — Table 
Mountain. — A River in the Air. — Romance of Mining. — Funereal 
Aspect. — The Miner's Grave. — Receipts from Southern Coun- 
ties. — Copper-Mining. — Mine at Copperopolis. — Miners' haw. — 
Its History and Features. — J. Ross Browne's Description of the 
Code. — Different Size of Claims — Uncertainty of Mining Titles. 
— The Mining Act of 18(56. — Its Favorable Effects on California. 
-Amendments advised. — Unity of Legislation needed . 121-136 



CHAPTER XI. 

The Digger Indians. — A Digger Camp. — Their Physical Features. 
— The Dying Squaw. — Touchitig Funeral Ceremonies. — 
Their Religious Belief. — ^Tradltion of Descent from the Wolf. — 
Their Degradation. — Customs. — The Diggers of Nevada County. 
— The Camp in Mariposa County. — Woven Baskets. — Grass- 
hoppers for Food. — Wigwams. — A Branch of the Shoshonees. — 



VIU CONTENTS. 

Perhaps descended from the Aztecs. — The Causes of their Degra- 
dation. — Perhaps the lowest Tribe on Earth. — Volume of Brain. 
— Comparison with Peruvian Skull. — The Antediluvian Indian. 
— The Calaveras Skull. — Found in Pliocene Deposits, — Table 
Mountain Skull.— Darwinian Theory . . . . 137-152 



CHAPTER XII. 

The College of Californla.. — The Moral Teachers in California. 
—Their Value to the State.— The Rev. Dr. Bushnell — The College 
Grounds. — Its Plan. — The Proposed University. — The Agricul- 
tural College. — Mining School. — Endowment of the University. 
— Japanese Students ....... 153-lCO 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Gold Mining. — The Foot Hills. — Ruin from Gold Washing. — Hy- 
draulic Washing. — Gold Run. — The Blue Lead. — Grass Valley. 
— The Eureka Mine. — Great Profits. — The Hayward Mine. — 
Production of Grass Valley. — More Economical Mining. — Saving 
of Wastage. — Quartz Mining. — Good Luck. — Cement Mining. — 
Its Annual Yield. — Placer Mining. — Successful Operations. — Its 
Produce. — Gold Mining Processes. — Crushing and Amalgama- 
tion. — Mining Tricks and Failures. — Salting a Mine. — A Bogus 
Mine. — Scientific Reports. — The General Profits of Mining Doubt- 
ful. — Gold and Silver Product for 1867. — Whole Product since 
1848.— The Northern Mines 161-181 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Pacific Railroad. — A Marvel of Engineering-work. — Its Difficul- 
ties. — Official Statement in Regard to the Union Pacific Rail- 
road. — ^Wells & Fargo's Express. — Virginia City. — Its Aspect. 
— Stock Speculation. — Material Tendencies. — Need of Humane 
Men. — The Silver Miners. — The Comstock Lode. — Mount David- 
son. — The Savage Mine. — Uncertainty of Investments. — Marvel- 
ous Success of Empire Company. — Gould & Curry. — Hale & 
Norcross. — Increase of Value. — Whole Yield. — Treatment of Ores. 
--SilverMud 132 199 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER Xy. 

Professional Robbers. — Non-resistance of Californians. — Polite- 
ness of Gentlemen of the Road. — An Adventure. — Lake Tahoe. — 
Robbing by Stages. — Indifference of a Fellow-traveler. — Wild 
Scene. — A Volley. — Coolness of Driver. — The Skirmish. — Need 
of Momited Police.— Shooting of three Robbers . . 200-208 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Chinese of Caijfornia.— An excellent Working Popula- 
tion. — Their Submissiveuess. — Oppression. — Gradual Change of 
Public Opinion.— Their Importance.— Neatness of Habits, ~A 
Brutal Scene.— Mining-tax.— Inadmissibility of their Testimony. 
— The Old Struggle of Humanity renewed.— Judge Axtell.209-214 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Chinese. — Visit to Chinese Merchants. — Courtesies. — Impor- 
tation of Women.— Question of the Ballot. — Christianity.— De- 
bate on the Exclusion of Chinese Testimony. — The Injustice of 
it.— Chinese Theatre and Temple .... 215-227 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Large Farming. — A Country-house. — Hospitality. — Olives, Al- 
monds, and Peaches. — Ornamental Trees. — A Wheat Farm. — 
Volunteer Crops. — Threshing. — Livermore Valley. — Gigantic 
Farming. — Figs, Flax, and Hops. — Merino-sheep. — Wheat Yield 
ofState.— Barley.— Indian Corn 228-242 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The Geysers. — ^Napa and Calistoga. — Voss' Station. — Manners to 
Ladies. — Reckless Driving. — The Grizzly Bears. — Hot Springs. 
— Devil's Canon. — Russian River Valley. — Napa Valley 243-252 
1- 



COJS^TENTS. 



CHAPTER XX. 



WlNE-GROWiXG — Need of Honest Criticism — Defects of Wines. — 
Want of Faithful Work. — Careless AVine-making. — Mistakes. — 
The Mission-grape. — Whole Science an Experiment . 253-259 



CHAPTER XXI. 

The Sonoma Vineyards — Production. — Mode of Planting — Prun- 
ing. — Cost and Yield per Acre. — Best Varieties — Process of 
Wine-making — The Buena Vista Society. — California Cham- 
pagne. — Process ofMaking. — Percentage of Alcohol. — Compari- 
son with Hastings Wine. — Vineyards on Sierras and Foot-Hills. 
—Yield and Profit— Raisins.— Catawba Wine . . 2G0-276 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Los Angeles — Characteristics. — Appearance — Beauty Exaggerat- 
ed. — Bad Name — Improvements. — Mr. Wilson's Vineyard — 
Orange-groves . — Lemons. — Fruit-crop of Valley. — Figs — 
Limes. — Olives. — Almonds. — Castor-oil . — Wild Mustard . — 
Immense Ranches. — Policy of Government. — Vaqueros — Catch- 
ing Bulls with Lasso. — Wine-making. — Angelica Port. — Vins 
de Liqueur — Jkluscatel. — Profits. — Causes of Inferiority of 
Wines. — Morals of Los Angeles. — Climate. — Rain-fall. — Ana- 
heim Vineyards . . ..... 277-296 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Oil- Wells. — Petroleum Seas. — Santa Barbara. — The Agave 
Cactus. — Ground-Rodents. — Bees. — Wonderful Increase. — 
Cattle. — Sales of Land. — The Mammoth Grape-vine. — Silk- 
worm Growing — Question of Temperance. — Pomace Brandy. — 
Brandy-tax. — Santa Clara Valley Vineyards. — Quicksilver 
Mines.— Process of Extraction.— Total Yield . . 297-310 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Agricultural Resources of California^ — Depreciatory Opin- 
ions. — Amazing Development. — ^Advantages for Production — 



COIS^TENTS. XI 

Large Yields — Different Crops. — Increasing Capital. — Exports. 
— Wheat and Grain Harvests. — Silk-growing. — M. Prevost — 
Advantages in California. — Statistics. — Silk-making. — Practical 
Instructions on Silk-growing. — Profits. — Silk-worms . 311-329 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The Climate of Pacific Coast.— Data Wanting for the Science. 
— Northern-Coast Temperature. — Summer on whole Coast. — 
Winter. — Comparative Tempeiatures of Europe and Africa Avith 
those of the Coast. — Analogies of Climate. — Equability of Tem- 
perature. — Varietv of Climate — Comparison between Europe 
and Pacific Coa.st. — Rain-full. — Dryness of Air. — Causes of Pa- 
cific Climates. — Water Cooler in Summer. — Interior Climates. — 
Influence of Arizona Desert ...... 330-344 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

California fok the Emigrant.— Division of Soil into Freeholds. 
— Development of Agriculture. — Society becoming Settled. — 
Who should not come. — Wages. — Female Labor best adapted for 
Small Wine-growers and Farmers. — Advantages . 345-350 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Where to Settle in California.— Avoid River-bottoms.— Foot 
Hills doubtful. — Coast Valleys best. — Sonoma and Russian 
River. — San Joaquin — Bay-counties. — South of California. — 
Cheapness of Living. — Statement for Foot-Hills . 351-357 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The American Palestine.- Correspondences between Syria and 
California. — Productions. — Irrigation. — Job's Description of 
Scenery. — Land-slides. — Water-spouts. — The Miners' Work in 
Job. — The Droughts in both Countries. — Similarity of Seasons 
and of Fruits. — Wine-pressers. — Bible Scenes. — Dead Seas. — 
Geysers. — Mirage. — Flowers, Fruit, and Wine . . 358-366 



XU CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Effect of Climate on Race in California. — Indications of 
Race-changes. — Improvement of Type. — Handsome Physique. — 
Expanded Lungs. — Prolific Power. — Children Healthier. — Dif- 
ferent Types. — Climate not All-powerful. — The Principle of In- 
heritance. — The Political Future. — A New Republic. — New 
Race.— The New West 367-373 



THE IsTEW WEST; 



OR, 



CALIFORNIA IN 1867 AND '68, 



CHAPTER I. 

THE TRIP TO SAN FRANCISCO. 

The voyage from New York to California by the 
Isthmus had so often been pictured to me as a dis- 
agreeable and hard trip, that I was not at all pre- 
pared for the pleasures and varieties of it. Some 
of my impressions, no doubt, are due to the 
sensations of one just recovered from a tedious fever, 
and changing a sick room for the glorious ocean, 
with its airs of health and vigor. But, as an old 
traveler, I can honestly say, I know of no sea-journey 
in any part of the world to compare with this in variety 
and enjoyment. Instead of the stormy North Atlantic, 
with its cold and fog, and the reeling state-rooms, 
smelling of oil, bilgewater and eructated dinners, 
and incessant gale and mist and chill, each day a 
bore and burden, we had here a blue sea with '^ the 
innumerable smile, ^^ the sparkle of spring sunlight 



14 THE NEW WEST. 

hy day, and the trail of molten silver by night, airs 
genial but bracing, only a ripple on the water from 
New York to Aspinwall, broad airy saloons, the state- 
room on deck, where, in your berth, you looked out, 
with a sense of delicious repose, on the blue waves of 
the Caribbean ; meals with every variety and luxury, 
every thing clean and pleasant, and the long voyage 
varied by a railroad ride through a tropical conser- 
vatory and a change to a new and even larger steamer 
on the Pacific, with the best accommodations. 

The California trip ought to be taken merely for 
pleasure, now that the traveler can enjoy the Pacific 
Mail Service. 

We had an unusually pleasant company, yet char- 
acteristic of the coast we were about to visit. There 
was a Superintendent of the Indians, a rough, ready, 
warm-hearted man, with a great deal of information 
about his proteges; then several Mining Superin- 
tendents, men of much ability and energy; a young 
American gentleman, of a prominent New York family, 
and just graduated from Oxford, who was about to 
take charge of a mine in a remote mining to^Yla. ; 
young ladies, teachers, clergymen, mothers with fam- 
ilies returning from a visit to the ^^East'^ ; but, best 
of all for us, was a most interesting scientific party, 
Mr. Clarence King and his corps, going out to sur- 
vey the Continent on the fortieth parallel, under a 
Government commission. It was a truly American 
phenomenon : here was a young man of twenty-four 
who had already on the State geological survey of Cali- 
fornia, proved himself one of the most daring of living 



STEAMER — COMPANY. 15 

explorers, and now was appointed by the Government 
to head the most important American scientific survey 
of this generation, one which would probably extend 
over a period of from five to eight years and embrace 
the investigation of the flora and fauna, the geology, 
meteorology, determination of altitude, and geography 
of the whole belt of the Pacific Kailroad. A mao-- 

o 

nificent opportunity for a man of science, and which 
any savant living would hold an honor to be offered. 
Mr. King is evidently as thoroughly trained in habit 
of mind as he is bold and heroic in action. The 
records of his exploits in obtaining the heights of 
unloiown peaks in the Sierras would read like a story 
of romance. Nothing has been done in the Alps to 
equal them in daring and difficulty; though the 
explorations of the brothers Schlagintweit, in the 
Himalayas, may have been as arduous. Mr. King 
and his associates have discovered and ascended 
nearly to the summit of what is probably the highest 
peak of the United States, Mt. Whitney (over 15,000 
feet) ; he also climbed Mt. Tyndall (14,386 feet), and 
Mt. Hofi"man (10,872 feet). His stories of his years 
of Avild life on the plains and among the mountains 
showed what a field of manly training and scientific 
work there is now on the Pacific slope ioY our jeunesse 
dorcCj who have no taste for business or the professions. 
The civilized man comes down and gathers up the 
best qualities of the barbarian — quickness of hand and 
eye, firm nerve, contempt of cold, hunger, and priva- 
tion, power to use his body to the best advantage, and 
the ability to front coolly danger and death — and 



16 THE NEW WEST. 

with them he combines all which training and culture 
have given, to gain new conquests over Nature and 
to advance the frontiers of knowledge. It is a good 
thing to see such aims and works in an age of fraud, 
profit, and comfort. 

One person on board particularly attracted our in- 
terest, Mr. J. C, a Mining Superintendent, and a self 
educated geologist and philosopher : he is a type of 
a class which undoubtedly exists in California, and 
I suppose nowhere else in the world, of men who 
have read little of books and seen little of the world, 
but who, in their lonely rambles and ^^prospecting" 
among the mountains, have studied Nature profoundly 
and philosophically, as very few men ever do. 

Mr. C. is known to science, as having first detected 
the evidence of glacial action in the Sierras, and I 
have been assured by our first geologists, that his 
crude theories and investigations on the forma- 
tion of mineral veins, the ancient changes of climate 
on the Pacific coast, the lines of upheaval, the sources 
of the lava overflow and the like, were worthy of the 
most profound consideration by the ablest investiga- 
tors. He did not weary, sitting on deck under the 
tropical star-light, discoursing by the hour, to my 
wife and me, as we watched the glorious Southern 
Cross or the phosphorescent wake of molten silver be* 
hind the steamer, of the phosphorus which the ocean 
had taken up from the atmosphere, of the future 
moon which he saw in the Zodiacal light then rising 
with lengthened cone from the waters, and of the grad- 
ual passage of minerals from gases and water into 



THE ISTHMUS. 17 

mineral veins, and various problems connected there- 
with. He was naturally an ardent follower of Her- 
bert Spencer 5 but it was curious that both he and 
the other geologists were catasfrojyhists in their theo- 
ries of the Pacific coast, and none of them were suf- 
ficiently acquainted with the grand discovery of this 
age, the law of Natural Selection, and its bearing on 
all branches of scientific investigation. 

We enjoyed each moment of the sail through the West 
Indies and the Caribbean — that sea of such delicious 
blue that Humboldt suggested the poetic explanation 
of its color being caused by the dust of coral-reefs 
mingling with its waters : the peculiar state of moist- 
ure and consequent refraction of the atmosphere is 
the more probable cause. Here the flying-fish be- 
gan to skip over the waves, sometimes scores rising 
just before the bows, and sailing or leaping often a 
hundred yards or more. 

For several days before reaching the Isthmus, the 
heat was intense, and almost every one on board was 
more or less out of order. 

The journey over the Isthmus has been so often 
described that I wiU say little of it. It forms a most 
delightful break in the long voyage, and would be 
worth the trip to Panama, alone, to enjoy. The true 
equator of heat on the western Continent is on tliis 
Isthmus, and the traveler has the rare opportunity 
of seeing tropical jungles, palms, mangroves, and 
bananas, draped and bound together with lianas and 
the parasitic vines of hot climates, with the superb 
flowers and birds and insects of an equatorial forest, 



18 THE NEW WEST. 

while riding in a railroad car, secure from malaria, 
and enjoying all the comforts of civilization. It is 
truly a jaunt through a conservatory. 

The astonishing number of different palms* sur- 
prises one J the tree-ferns, the superb yellow or white 
flowers covering large forest trees, the marvelous 
growth of parasites, the callas and exquisite water- 
flowers in the pools where occasionally a large alliga- 
tor rolls lazily in, the chattering of monkeys in one 
or two thickets, and the flight of brilliant paroquets 
through the forest — these are the features in one's 
memory of that scene of rich tropical luxuriance on 
the Panama Railroad. 

As a work of engineering and difficulty it is most 
remarkable ; and one can well believe the current 
saying that every tie on the track has cost a human 
life. It is now, and always must be, a most important 
and lucrative transit. Nothing can fully compete 
with it, or withdraw large portions of its business. 
Its main traffic will always be with the Central and 
South American countries, as it is the nearest link of 
communication between eight millions of people and 
Europe. In 1860, its Californian freight business 
was less than one-fifteenth of its whole trade ; in 
1867, it was about one-third. t It is computed that 
the value of the trade between the South and Central 
American countries and the Atlantic is over 
$60,000,000 per annum. 

The new trade opening now between New York and 



* Twenty- three varieties are classified on the Isthmus. 
+ Dr. Otis. "Isthmus of Panama," &c. 



PANAMA EAILROAD. 19 

Japan and China, by the Pacific Mail steamers, may 
also throw a new and profitable business into its hands. 
Nine large steamship companies run now in connection 
with this road. The Pacific Mail, with twenty-five 
large steamships ; the Opposition Company, from New 
York and San Francisco ; the Compagnie-Generale 
Transatlantique, connecting with France and the 
West Indies j the West Indies and Pacific, running to 
Liverpool ; the West India and South America ; the 
Koyal Mail for the West Indies and Southampton, 
England; the New Zealand and Australian, running 
to the British Colonies in the Southern Pacific ; the 
British Pacific, for the west coast of South America ; 
and the steamships of the railroad connecting Panama 
with Central America.* 

From their peculiar geographical position, the Com- 
pany enjoy almost amonopoly — good judges doubting if 
a canal can ever be built which will compete with them. 
The consequence of their advantageous position is that 
their charges for passengers are enormous — twenty- 
five dollars gold — for a journey of forty-seven miles. 
And their service is not at all of the first class. There 
is no station at all under the rain or hot sun at Aspin- 
wall, and quite a little walk must be taken from the 
steamer to the cars, which ought to be avoided. The 
station at Panama is but a poor one ; the cars are not 
well ventilated and have no su23ply of water, a neces- 
sity in that hot climate. Still the road is carefully 
managed, and has hardly ever met with an accident. 

The great competition it will meet with in the 

* Otis, "Isthmus," &c., p. 55. 



20 THE NEW WEST. 

future, in the Californian trade, will be from the Pacific 
Railroad. But this will only be in light and expensive 
freights, and first-class passenger traffic, and will not 
materially lessen its profits. How far the tea-trade 
between the Eastern coast and China is to come this 
way, is still a question. The transhipments are a 
great objection, and time is not, except with a few of 
the first cargoes, a very important element. The 
freight on tea, by the long sea route, from Hong Kong 
to New York, is about two cents a pound (or about the 
same as from New York to Chicago) ; by the Isthmus 
route it is about six cents and a half, with a gain of 
sixty days in time. The Company expect, however, 
to make the trip from Yokohama to New York, in 1869, 
in forty-five days in summer, and forty-eight in winter. 
The tea importers with whom I have spoken say 
that the advantage thus far over the long sea route is 
not of great account. They do not believe that tea 
will ever come over the Pacific road for the Eastern 
coast. Still no one can predict as to currents of com- 
merce, and thus far tea is forwarded over the Isthmus 
and apparently pays to lay down in New York, in 
limited quantities, even at the present high rates of 
freight. 

Panama is one of the most beautifully -placed towns 
in the world, and the views from the harbor are un- 
surpassed. We were taken aboard our steamer — an 
immense one, the Constitution — on a tug-boat, and 
had some hours to enjoy the various aspects of the 
Bay. The run up the coast was even more delightful 
than that on the other side. The accommodations 



PACIFIC MAIL. 21 

were luxurious, and we were often in sight of the grand 
volcanic chains of mountains along the coast of Cen- 
tral America and Mexico. The Pacific deserved its 
name, and hardly more than a ripple disturbed its 
blue surface all the way to San Francisco. A delicious 
land breeze blew every day from the coast, tempering 
the fierce heats ; and we lay in our berths, watching 
the blue waves and distant peaks, or reclined in easy 
chairs, having the very perfection of dolcc far niente 
life on sea-board. A little stay in the land-locked 
harbor of Acapulco varied the voyage, and off Cape 
St. Lucas the cool, invigorating breezes of the North- 
ern Pacific began, causing white linens and muslins 
to be put away, and thick traveling-suits to appear 
again. 

THE PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY. 

I should not close my sketch of the trip to Califor- 
nia without speaking of the great commercial Com- 
pany which seems destined to open new currents of 
commerce to the United States, as the Dutch East 
India Company did to Holland, and the British to Great 
Britain. Here, on the coast, the great link of Cali- 
fornia with the world outside, and its future connec- 
tion with newly-opened marts of commerce in the 
Orient, are through the Pacific Mail. This important 
commercial corporation, one of the most powerful and 
wealthy now existing in any country, are sailing a 
fleet of first-class steamers, such as many an old king- 
dom in Europe would be proud to possess. There are 
now some twenty-five large steamers floating their 



22 THE NEW WEST. 

flag, with a combined capacity of 61,474 tons, con- 
necting California with the Isthmus and New York ; 
while, on the other side, they are binding Japan and 
China to the Pacific coast, and, if the expectations of 
most Californians be well founded, are soon to turn a 
golden tide of commerce and travel from Asia to our 
far Western States. 

The remarkable success of this Company, increas- 
ing year after year, through such long, difficult, and 
expensive voyages, is a marked contrast to the failure 
of the American marine on the Atlantic, where sharp 
competition has driven us from the field. For a 
student of organization it is well worth inquiring to 
what this brilliant success is due. 

We believe it is especially owing to thorough organ- 
ization, and then to what we may call honesty of work. 
The present President of the Company is reputed to 
know every officer, and the detail of every ship, in all 
their large fleet. His associates in the office are 
thoroughly acquainted, each with his own branch. 
The Board of Management has men in it of cautious, 
far-reaching, organizing brains, and who are deter- 
mined that whatever public service the Company does, 
it shall be done thoroughly and in good faith. The 
consequence is, through all the extended administra- 
tion of this Commercial Board, there is thoroughness 
and exactness. The work is done, as they promise 
it shall be done. 

I have been exceedingly struck with this organiza- 
tion on this journey — a voyage altogether of some 
5,300 miles through a hot climate, where a defect of 



. ORGANIZATION. 23 

management might bring about unpleasant results. 
Having traveled on most of the great Atlantic and 
European lines, I can truly saj that I have never 
witnessed an equal organization, the only fault being 
some small defects in forwarding baggage on the 
Isthmus. 

Take the matter of coal alone, which, burned at 
the rate it is on a Cunarder, would cost the Company 
from s$2,000 to $2,500 a day, while, by invention and 
economy, it is reduced on some of their steamers to some 
twenty-four tons a day, or some $530, and on theCoiisti- 
tution to fifty tons, or some $ 1 , 1 00 per diem. On their 
steamers running between San Francisco and Japan, 
over five thousand miles, with one thousand seven 
hundred tons of dead weight, two thousand tons of 
merchandise, and one thousand five hundred passen- 
gers with baggage, and an average speed of two hun- 
dred and twenty sea knots per day, the coal con- 
sumption is only fortt/ tons per diem. 

The fire-alarm was tried several times on the 
voyage with a perfect organization. On the Henry 
Chauncey more than a dozen streams were playing in 
about two minutes and a half, and the boats were all 
manned. Near Cuba, a man fell overboard, and went 
down nearly a mile astern. Within ten minutes, the 
steamer was stopped, a boat put out, the man picked 
up and brought aboard. 

The accommodations and table on both sides are 
unequaled, the latter even being provided with deli- 
cacies, such as canned fruits, canned vegetables, and 
fresh tropical fruit, seldom known at sea. The 



24 THE NEW WEST. 

immense importance of cleanliness is recognized, and 
men are employed the whole time in sweeping and 
swabbing decks and guards. Every morning each 
state-room is carefully inspected by the officers of the 
ship, and the privies and closets are disinfected j 
neither of which useful sanitary provisions, so far as 
I have seen, are ever adopted on Atlantic steamers. 
The climate of the Pacific, no doubt, favors commo- 
dious and spacious arrangements, as it must also aid 
economy, for some of these steamers are sailed, it is 
said, with only a dozen sailors. No traveler could 
avoid being impressed with the moral order of these 
great floating hotels. We had on the Henry Chaun- 
cey and then on the Constitution^ over a thousand 
passengers, thus brought together for three weeks. 
During that time there was no quarreling, no gambling, 
no hard drinking, and the Sundays were observed 
with more seriousness and devotion than in most 
hotels on shore. Of course, much of this is due to 
the increasing civilization and good order of the Cali- 
fornian community, but much also to the strict regu- 
lations enforced by the Trustees of the Company. 
The religious community of the Pacific coast, we have 
reason to know, feel many obligations to Mr. McLane, 
Mr. Potter, and their fellow-managers for the good 
moral rules they have carried out on these ships. 

So exact is the organization that it is said the net 
returns of each trip of these steamers are as well 
known at the end of the voyage, as the profits of a 
petty retail shop after the day^s business is over. 

Most of the Captains of the line are old, experienced 



SUCCESS OF THE COMPANY. 25 

officers, several having been in the navy, and a good 
officer is not often allowed to be lost, even if he lie 
idle awhile. 

The results of years of this exactness and thorough- 
ness, of liberal providing where liberality is necessary, 
and of economy where saving must come ; of doing 
their work well and faithfully, have been to throw 
the main part of the traffic between the two coasts of 
America into the hands of this Company, and to furnish 
profits to the original stockholders such as are seldom 
gained. Their assets have increased from $4,000,000 
in 18G1, to $22,000,000 in 18G8, during which time 
their profits were the enormous sum of $14,935,988. 
There has been, too, a wise and far-reaching pro- 
vision in the arrangements of the Company. The line 
does not depend alone on California. On our steamer 
were travelers to various parts of South America and 
to Australia and New Zealand, the latter connect- 
ing with English lines at the Isthmus. The last 
steamer from Aspinwall carried over forty British 
passengers from Australia, bound for England, via 
New York. When Mexico is pacified, a great busi- 
ness will undoubtedly grow up on the Pacific side, 
between all parts of Central and South America and 
California and New York. 

Freight is becoming a very important item. The 
Constitution brought down in sacks what would be 
equivalent to fourteen thousand barrels of flour from 
San Francisco for New York, and the last steamer had 
an equal amount. This export, of course, can not 
continue long, for it would be impossible for Califor- 



26 THE NEW WEST. 

nia to compete in wheat, in good seasons, witli the 
Central West in the New York market, though it is 
said to cost less to carry a barrel of flour from San 
Francisco to New York than from fifty miles in the 
interior to the former city. But this serves to show 
how a good line opens commerce by taking advantage 
of special occasions and sudden wants. 

The boldest movement of the Company has been 
the starting of a new line of steamers between San 
Francisco and Japan and China. The opening trips 
have done better than was expected, and paid their 
expenses, with a profit. No great result could rea- 
sonably be expected for several years. Commerce 
has to be created with those distant and semi-barbar- 
ous countries. The Chinese are apparently thus far 
demanding our flour to a limited degree, but there 
seems no reason why China, with labor only ten cents 
a day and immense wheat-bearing districts, should not 
ultimately supply her own flour. From Japan there 
has been a demand for California manufactures. 
Whether this will continue is uncertain. It is equally 
uncertain whether our steamers can divert the teas 
from China to England or to New York, and transfer 
them to this new route. This line wiU certainly 
bring great numbers of Chinese emigrants, and such 
goods as are consumed by Chinese in California. It 
will also supply the whole Pacific slope with teas, and 
silks, and rice. It may acQomplish even more. 

At all events, the far-seeing managers have deter- 
mined to make the trial. A new link of communica- 
tion of this kind creates new wants, and makes a 



OEIENTAL COMMEECE. 27 

commerce. It will certainly divert much travel from 
China to Europe and America from the ^^ Peninsular 
and OrientaP^ line. It is no doubt especially an effort 
to meet the vast changes in travel and commerce 
which are to begin when the Pacific Railroad is 
finished. 

In a few years, when the traveler from New York 
lands in nine days in San Francisco, the first-class 
passenger business by this line, vid the Isthmus, will 
be greatly diminished. Freights and emigrants will 
be their great reliance. Then their China line and a 
new European line may fill up the gaps made by the 
Pacific road in their income, and a new commerce 
with the Orient become as much a source of profit as 
has been the transfer of passengers to and from Cali- 
fornia. 

Moreover, as California fills up with population, 
there must be an increased commerce by water to 
supply the country with luxuries, and to export its 
heavy commodities. 

I had always supposed that the Pacific Mail would 
be obliged to change its side-wheel steamers for pro- 
pellers, but they claim that they can run their boats 
now more cheaply than any propellers are run. 

The principal organizing brains of the line are 
Allan McLane and Howard Potter, and these are 
men who look far beyond any immediate efi"ects, and, 
with a noble ambition, seek to open new channels of 
commerce and civilization for their country and the 
world. 

The expectations current in New York of the gigan- 



28 THE NEW WEST. 

tic effect to be produced on the growth of the city by 
the approaching commerce with the Orient, seem to 
me greatly exaggerated. It is not New York that the 
Pacific road or the cheapened transit by the Pacific 
Mail steamers, will most benefit. It is the whole 
Pacific slope, as far as the Central Basin, which is to 
feel the especial advantages of the new trade and the 
new emigration. San Francisco will grow under it, 
and the towns of the Sierras, and Nevada, and Utah j 
but New York will be only distantly affected, and but 
little direct commerce, comparatively, take place be- 
tween it and the vast East by the new routes. 

And as to Chicago being especially benefited by it, 
or becoming a center of Oriental commerce and ex- 
change, it seems to me one of the wildest dreams of 
the sanguine American brain. 



CHAPTER II. 

CRYSTAL SPRINGS CANOX. 

A FORTUNATE chcance has placed me at once in a 
delightful retreat, with hospitable friends — one particu- 
larly refreshing after a long sea voyage, and which is 
really more characteristic of the country than the 
large cities. You leave San Francisco by the San 
Jost^ Railroad, one of the few railroads yet built in the 
State. The cars are comfortable, and the road seems 
well laid, passing over a country which the high 
winds have swept bare of trees, but which is covered 
with green grass and unusually gay wild flowers. The 
passengers look like any respectable railroad travel- 
ers on the Eastern coast, perhaps, on the whole, a tint 
ruddier and more robust, and fully as nicely dressed — 
the ladies often in quiet traveling dresses, and the 
gentlemen in good business suits, and gloved. We 
pass one or two picturesquely-built stone asylums or 
public institutions, and many modern suburban houses, 
with numbers of wind-mills for supplying water. The 
names of stations are foreign, and every thing outside 
has a foreign air. After some twenty miles and an 
hour's time, we stop at San Mateo, a little village, not 
unlike any of our new villages, though with a pret- 
tier stone church than is usual. The carriage drive 
now begins, and carries us by some roomy, comfort- 
able villas, such as one might see near Cleveland or 



30 THE NEW WEST. 

Hartford, and then abruptly crossing a bright spark- 
ling stream, takes us along its banks a short distance, 
then over rolling hills, until we reach the Canon. 
Even in this brief glimpse of the open country, every 
thing is new. Half a dozen lamas are feeding in the 
fields which we skirt ; as we ride by, there is a scam- 
pering through all the fields of what look like gray 
squirrels with stumpy tails. Some stand on their 
little mounds and watch us. These are the ground- 
squirrels, that great pest to the California former, 
fairly honeycombing the ground and eating thousands 
of bushels of grain. No barns are visible, all grain 
being stacked. There are few trees to be seen, except 
on the watercourses, and there they seem to have an 
unnaturally dark green color. The hills are rounded 
and worn smooth, difi'erent from any that one sees in 
the Eastern States in outline. The distant moun- 
tains are more sharp, conical, and volcano-like than 
on our coast. We now enter the dark Cafion. That 
word is a happy legacy of the Spaniards, though no 
language has so many terms for mountain-features as 
our own. The cafion is not a gully, for that is too 
small ; nor a valley, for that is too flat 5 nor a gorge, 
or clove, or pass, or ravine precisely. It belongs to 
California ; its steep walls are the effect of countless 
ages of rushing water, or they are the sides of a great 
split in the mountains made by the tremendous vol- 
canic forces which shaped this coast. It is darker, 
deeper, more awful than our New England ravines, 
more abrupt than usual mountain passes. The Cry- 
stal Springs Cafion, however, has more the character 



CEYSTAL SPEINGS CAKOI^. 31 

of a wild Italian ravine. It was dark even at 
noon-day — the hard, well-watered road, smooth as a 
gentleman's avenue, windmg in easy grades along the 
banks of a dashing crystal-clear stream, and beneath 
such weird trees. They were evergreen oaks {Quer- 
cus crassipocula), different in effect from any tree I 
have any where seen, except now and then in Italy — 
precisely such as Salvator Rosa painted, and which a 
Ruskinian would say were impossible — heavy, moss- 
gro^\Ti trunks, and great gray branches reaching out 
fantastically, without symmetry or harmony, the small 
twigs coming right out from thick arms, the branches 
of each tree twisted and contorted singularly, and the 
leaves a roof of small black green leaves, giving an 
impervious shade. These trees were often growing 
amid wild gray rocks, tossed about in great confu- 
sion, and covering the sides of the hills above. 

There was a singular romance and strange wild 
character to the whole ravine, which I never tired of 
while in California. It was a beautiful object to have 
so near a large city. The cottage where was my 
summer home was outside of the Cailon, under 
some oaks, and on the verge of a considerable wood. 
The view there is characteristic ; — rounded yellow 
hills, bare of trees, except occasionally dark green 
clumps with flattened tops, of evergreen oaks; the 
hills seem covered with grain to the very tops, but 
the crop is, in fact, generally wild oats, the great 
pasture in California, the seed no doubt originally 
dropped by the Spaniards, and, with that character- 
istic of domesticated plants, — a greater ability for the 



32 THE NEW WEST. 

struggle for existence than the wild (because it has 
contended with more enemies), it has extirpated the 
wild grasses of the whole Pacific slope and covers 
now millions of acres. The hills opposite our cottage 
are green with a thick growth of forest, and my friend, 
with admirable taste, has laid out miles of walks un- 
der the close shade and among the fantastic oaks. 
Among the tree-tops can be distinguished occasion- 
ally the magnificent dark green tops of the bay or 
laurel (Cal Tetr anther a). 

There are elms on the low lands, and pines, oaks 
and beeches on the hills, the brush is full of game, 
which I shall begin to look after soon 5 and yet, 
though like, they are diiferent animals from our 
own. The rabbits seem larger, and an enormous hare 
is seen occasionally ; the quail are smaller, and the 
male has a beautiful crown on the end of a thin sup- 
port of feather. These birds are not in season yet, 
and, as the game law is strict, they are undisturbed, 
and come out in flocks along all the paths. A pe- 
culiar feature of the woods are enormous rats' nests, 
some three feet high, made of twigs and moss. The 
small birds are all different from our own. A 
deer occasionally traverses the forest-openings to get 
to water, and now and then a '^ grizzly " is seen on 
the sides of the Canon. All is different from the 
Eastern coast ; the insects and ground animals are 
new, the musquitoes are smaller and more sluggish, 
the frogs have a strange note. We have come in at 
the end of the feast of wild flowers, but the meadows 
and hill-sides are stiU gay with the most superb flow- 



WILD FLOWERS. 33 

ers. Evidently, many of our garden annuals are 
wild here. My wife never tires of gathering splendid 
bouquets of them, and decorating the house. Occa- 
sionally, as we walk through the forest, we are startled 
by coming suddenly on a bloody trunk, whose mus- 
cular, flesh-like branches have a singular resemblance 
to the preserved limbs of the human body in museums 
of anatomy, the Manzanita [Arctostaphylos glauca) / 
and we almost see the old metamorphosis — 

" Ilia dolet fieri longos sua brachia raruos 
* * * complectitur inguina cortex," 

or the Madrona {Arbutus Menziesii) with its trunk of 
a bright red, where the bark is stripped off, attracts us. 

The woods are now sprinkled like snow with the 
white flowers of the buckeye, a horse-chestnut 
(Cornus Nuttalii), 

On the far hiUs, toward the south, we can see the 
gigantic trunks of the superb ^^ Red Wood" {Sequoia 
sempervirens), a most queenly tree, over two hundred 
feet high, and a near relative to the Big Trees. Its 
wood, polished and varnished, has a beautiful grain 
and rich color. 

We are here in the extreme western part of the 
coast range, and only one chain of high hills separates 
us from the ocean. These hills guard us from the 
tremendous mnds which sweep over San Francisco 5 
at the same time, the air is cooled by the nearness to 
the sea. The dry season has begun ; dust (that great 
infliction of California) is gathering on the roads, and 
the meadows are becoming brown, bat the air is like 
the elixir of life. The days remind me of the finest 



34 THE NEW WEST. 

days under our Newport climate. A clear blue sky, 
a bright sunlight, with never a cloud ; at ten o'clock 
the day really too warm, when the delicious sea-breeze 
begins, and all is cool and bracing ; the nights 
always cool, so that we invariably have an open wood- 
fire — though it is June — in the evening, and are glad 
of a pair of the splendid California blankets at night. 

One never tires under such an atmosphere. Of all 
human conditions, next to civilization and its advan- 
tages, the most important is climate ; perhaps, for 
personal happiness, it is more than all other material 
circumstances. Here, it seems to me, you have it as 
near perfection as man can attain without enervation. 
Just at this point, except in sheltered spots, the air is 
too cool for the vine and the fig; but wheat grows 
splendidly, and on hill-sides the peach, plum, and 
apple. Further in, in the coast range, every tem- 
perate and semi-tropical fruit grows in perfection. 
And in the same line with us are some of the finest 
dairy farms in the world. I hear of one north of the 
city with one thousand five hundred milch cows on it ; 
and there is one between us and San Francisco which 
must have hundreds. A friend of mine, with a truly 
Californian epigram, speaking of the immense Spanish 
cattle-ranches that used to be in existence here, says : 
^' Those greasers,* they never know how to live! 
They had cattle on a thousand hills, and never a pint 
of milk to drink.'' 

Even now, as is well known, California has to 
import butter and cheese. 



A name given to the Spaniah-American settlers. 



THE CLIMATE. 35 

What has been accomplished already in a few such 
situations as this, shows what earthly paradises in the 
future will be created in the Californian Coast 
Range. 

The great enemies are dust in summer and mud in 
winter. But here, with a little care, this beautiful 
road through the Canon is kept smooth and free from 
dust, and, no doubt, in winter, paving or macadamiz- 
ing would greatly lessen the incumbrance of mud. 
For invalids needing a bracing climate, this part of 
the Coast Range is very favorable ; but for consump- 
tives, a more inland, mild, and dry air would be bet- 
ter. Our winds are mainly from the sea, and yet the 
atmosphere has not the humidity to the feeling, of our 
o^m coast air. I observe, too, that decaying animal 
or vegetable substance does not give the same offen- 
sive odor as at home ; it dries up. The entire 
want of cloud or rain, the power of the sun, and the 
highly oxygenated character of the air, blowing over 
such vast spaces of salt water, must be the explana- 
tion of these phenomena. 

The whole region, and all its phenomena, seem to 
me more different from those of the Eastern coast, than 
Europe is from the Atlantic States. I am constantly 
wondering that people speak English. It seems to 
me that if a student of Nature from our coast were 
suddenly put down blind-fold in any portion of Cali- 
fornia, in the deepest forest, or on the mountain-top, 
and with only a few feet of horizon, he would know 
in an instant that he was not on the Atlantic slope, or 
in Europe. It is ^' The New West.'' 



CHAPTER HI. 

SAN FRANCISCO. 

I DOUBT whether the Puritan Fathers, when they 
landed on the rocky coast of New England in Decem- 
ber, had a harder task before them in building up a 
home, than the Americans, tAventy-one years ago, who 
undertook to found a city on this bay. The site was 
simply a desert of sand, with hills of clay and sand, 
and a few ravines where grew the occasional low 
evergreen oaks which the violent ocean-winds per- 
mitted to exist. The air was filled with clouds of 
dust in summer, and the gulches and trails in winter 
were almost impassable with unknown depths of mud. 
There were no pleasant groves or green intervales 
such as must have greeted the first founders of New 
York, or deep forests such as sheltered the builders 
of Boston. Bare sand and rock were all the land- 
scape, and the few green trees in the garden of the 
Mission Dolores must have been the only vegetation 
to show what might be done, in beautifying the desert 
spot. 

But here American energy and perseverance have 
succeeded in founding a great city — mountains have 
been leveled and valleys filled up to accomplish it ; 
millions have been spent to subdue refractory Nature 
— water brought from a mountain-valley, twenty -five 
miles away, to bestow fertility on the barren sitej 



A CITY OF FLO WEES. 37 

beautiful lawns front many of the houses, flowers of 
indescribable richness and variety fill every door- 
yard, exquisite shrubbery adorns the grass-plats ; 
there are long streets and hill-sides of comfortable 
houses with all the modern conveniences ; massive 
hotels equal to the best of our coast, handsome shops, 
large warehouses, churches — some of them of much 
beauty — school-houses and public buildings of taste 
and good architectural effect. The wonder is that 
so much could be accomplished with such an unprom- 
ising site and such refractory material during the 
space of twenty-one years. 

San Francisco should be called the ''■ City of Flow- 
ers." Such is the power of this divine climate, that it 
only needs a little patch of sand and mould, with plenty 
of water, to produce the most magnificent vegetation. 
Every house, with bits of yards like ours in New 
York, makes the most splendid show of flowers ; scar- 
let geraniums, ten feet high, lemon-verbenas which 
are small trees, fuchsias of immense size, callas in 
great bunches, splendid roses of many varieties, 
clambering vines, large cacti, gum-trees {Eucalypti) 
of Australia, and beautiful evergreens from Japan, 
Australia, and this coast — all left out through the 
year, and only needing plenty of water from the gar- 
den-hose. I have been much struck with a superb 
Norfolk Island pine in the yard of the post-office, 
which has been permitted to grow under the shelter 
of the buildings near by. 

A walk through the city is a constant study of 
botany. I never cease admiring the rich evergreens 



38 THE NEW WEST. 

and magnificent flowers. Each householder keeps his 
garden-hose playing^ morning and evening, and is 
rewarded soon by a paradise of vegetation. One of 
my friends tells me he makes his tvalUng-sticlcs from 
his lemon-verbenas. In one yard I attempted to 
measure the height of a scarlet geranium which was 
fastened to a wall; it was over fifteen feet. Our 
friends, seeing our passion for these beautiful flowers, 
send us in superb bouquets. 

Our residence in the city is usually on Rincon 
Hill ; the views from this are most varied and beauti- 
ful, and in general the outlooks from the hills through- 
out the town are wonderfully fine. Its position, so 
far as water-aspect is concerned, is very fortunate. 
Few bays in the world can surpass this, both as a 
harbor, and for its grand sweep of view. One im- 
posing feature, which I afterward learned to watch as 
a landmark during hundreds of miles of journey, is the 
volcanic-like peak ofMt. Diablo, but few miles distant, 
a mountain only some 3,800 feet high, but, owing to 
its rising directly from a plain, commanding one of 
the greatest horizons to be seen from any mountain 
in the world. The few public buildings seem to me 
unusually good in effect— better than our new build- 
ings in New York : such for instance as the Bank of 
CaUfornia, the Merchants' Exchange, and the Aims- 
House in the suburbs. Montgomery street is a neat 
and pleasant business street, and some of the new 
streets have a fine appearance. The city, however, 
can never be an imposing one. The necessity of 
using wood, and the custom of building low (perhaps 



NEED OF PAEKS. 39 

from fear of earthquakes), and irregularity of size to 
the structures, deprive the streets of any grand air. 
With all the immense energy and great Avealth of 
the citizens, Nature could never be utterly subdued. 
There are no large trees in the city, and no parks. 
One of our most experienced landscape gardeners who 
was here (Mr. Olmsted) believes that, under proper 
conditions, an agreeable park might be laid out. The 
grounds would have to be somewhat sunken and pro- 
tected by hedges or otherwise from the sea-winds 
before shrubbery could be started ; but when a proper 
shelter was once secured, a little water, and this won- 
derful climate would make the pleasure-grounds one 
of the gardens of the earth. A public-spirited citizen, 
who has succeeded so well with the What-Cheer- 
House, Mr. Woodward, has already opened some 
very pretty gardens to the public for a small entrance 
fee. 

The dust, too, of San Francisco has never been 
properly subdued. Why such an enterprising popu- 
lation should permit so many streets to be almost un- 
endurable from the clouds of sand, is not very com- 
prehensible. The wooden pavement, which answers 
better here, owing to the absence of frost, than in 
New York, and a more frequent use of the watering 
cart, will cure this great nuisance of the city. 

But the climate is the great charm of this city. 
It is the most exhilarating atmosphere in the world. 
In it man can do more work than any where else, and 
under it he feels under a constant pressure of excite- 
ment. With a sun as of Italy, and a coast-wind cool 



40 THE NEW AVEST. 

as our November gales, and an air as crisp and dry 
as that of the high Alps, people work on, without let 
or relaxation, till they snap the vital cords suddenly. 
Few Americans here die gradually or of old age: 
they fall off without warning. 

The cool air of the Pacific blows into the heated 
land, through what may be called the keyhole of the 
State — the Golden Gate — and then diffuses itself like 
a fan through the country, so that in whatever direc- 
tion you travel from San Francisco, you travel with 
the wind, and, unfortunately, with clouds of dust too. 
Experienced travelers often attempt to avoid this 
great plague of California by going to many points by 
sea, and returning by land to the city, thus facing the 
wind. I have felt this ^^ keyhole breeze" regularly 
every morning at eleven or thereabouts, even in the 
midst of the Sierras, a hundred miles away, in val- 
leys facing the west. 

In San Francisco it is this wind which especially 
modifies the climate. There is seldom a day too hot 
or too cold for out-door labor. Thick clothes are 
worn all the year long, and yet many people never 
have a fire in their grates. However warmly the day 
begins, before eleven comes the cool Pacific wind, and 
every one is glad of a thick coat. The winter is like 
the Enghsh summer, showery but delightful. Now 
and then, however, a rainy year comes, which makes 
a disagreeable season in winter. We may judge what 
a climate it is for fruits, for, on the first of January, 
green peas come in as strawberries go out. 

The summer is considered the severest season, and 



EFFECTS OF CLIMATE. 41 

a melting hot day (if it accidentally come) is wel- 
comed. The objection to this city climate is the 
clouds of dust raised from the sand hills. The temp- 
tation, toOj to overwork is excessive. There are 
none of those necessary resting spells which the 
^Mieated terms" on the eastern coast require of our 
hard-working citizens, and fewer of the useful vaca- 
tions which nature enforces in the diseases of our 
climate. As I have remarked, men die suddenly in 
this city ; and, as physicians assert, there is nowhere 
so much insanity in proportion to the population. But 
this is merely a matter of acclimation and habit of liv- 
ing. When society becomes more settled, people will 
learn to adapt themselves to the new conditions. The 
California Indians are said to have been remarkably 
long-lived. 

The more I examine the Californian capital, the 
more I am struck with its aspect as a city where 
Democracy has succeeded. Universal suffrage has 
had here its legitimate effect ; it has given the gov- 
ernment of affairs to the intelligent and moral classes, 
and those with most material interests. This may 
have arisen from the influence of large numbers of 
educated and energetic young Americans who early 
emigrated here, or it may be an effect of that tremen- 
dous outburst of moral power which overrode all the 
bounds of law and order, and put the elements of ras- 
cality and devilishness under foot for a generation to 
iiome — the revolution under the Vigilance Committee, 
thirteen years since. However it be explained, it is 
certain that the city is much better governed than any 



42 THE ]S"EW AVEST. 

of our eastern cities. The police is good, the citizen 
is safe in the lowest streets ; fires are less frequent and 
destructive than with us, though the houses are of the 
most combustible nature ; there is little open and 
repulsive vice ; gambling is held in with a tight rein ; 
the streets are dirty, it is true, but cleaner than those 
of New York • the schools (of which I shall speak 
more hereafter) and the school system are the best ; 
the Sunday is better observed than in New York. It 
is evident that the intelligent and moral element has 
the control, and keeps it vigorously. And all these 
results, be it remembered, have been obtained, not 
from the State, as with us, but by universal suffrage 
in the city. Of course there is jobbery here, as else- 
where, and the low and immoral elements get a voice 
sometimes; but, on the whole, the city seems well 
governed. 

There are other evidences, too, of high civilization : 
the churches are well attended, especially by men ; 
there are excellent libraries and reading-rooms, with 
large memberships; social clubs, with handsome 
rooms and all the appliances of comfort ; institutions 
of charity and benefaction for the orphan and the 
homeless and young criminal. One finds, beside, 
many houses where refinement and true taste prevail, 
and where much hospitality is shown. 

The great social evil of the city seems to be, how- 
ever, the hotel life. Large numbers of people, who 
ought to be keeping house, live, whether from laziness 
or supposed economy, alone, or with their families, in 
hotels or boarding-houses. From this kind of life 



HOTEL LIFE. 43 

come the scandals wliich so much disgrace the city, 
and the bad gossip which is so prevalent here. Here 
are brought out the fast and loud young girls we meet 
so much while traveling in California ; and here the 
young men, many of them foreigners, learn the free- 
and-easy manners with ladies Avhich so destroys, on 
both sides, all the charm and grace of intercourse. 
This is not the fruit, it should be remembered, of the 
refinement of San Francisco, but mainly of this hotbed 
life in public places. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE FUTURE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 

Nature seems to have given a premonition tliat the 
Californian capital was to be the great city of this 
coast, for no one is comfortable traveling from it to 
the inland, heat and dust increasing, owing to the 
prevailing winds ; and, as you approach it, you ap- 
proach healthy breezes, cool air, and a pleasant 
climate. 

Few will ever permanently live in the interior of 
California that can help it.* The villages, like the 
present mining-towns, will be " camps," where people 
make a campaign for fortune, but from which they 
return to the capital to enjoy the prizes of victory. 
All the fortunes accumulated now in the central 
plains, or the mines of the Foot Hills and the Sierras, 
either leave the country or are poured into the great 
city of the coast. The complaint is that no one stays 
in the country beyond the Coast Range. There can 



* The following is from the Evening Bulletin : "The Union, noticing- tlie 
value of lands in Santa Clara County, as classified in the Bulletin some days ago, 
calls attention to the cheaper lands yet open to settlement along the Foot Hills of 
the Sierra. We have heretofore pointed out the advantages of these lands fur 
settlement. There is a desire which amounts almost to a mania in the mining 
towns to settle near the coast, or, as it is called, ' around the Bay.' People liv- 
ing in the mountains, away from farms, and oppressed a part of the year by 
excessive heat, imagine often that aU extremes are modified, so that the happy 
mean can be found any where along the coast. But they forget the winds and 
fogs which push the wheat crops and vineyards well back to the hills ; and that 
accessible lands in proximity to the sea already bear a relatively high price." 



ATTEACTIO:S"S TO COAST. 45 

never be, outside of the valleys of this Range, a great 
class in California of rich farmers, or squires, or coun- 
try gentlemen, or even (permanently) prosperous and 
comfortable villages. The inevitable law of climate 
will force every one who can, to reside near the coast, 
and the immense attractions of San Francisco and the 
neighborhood will draw all wealth and culture toward 
it. The interior is dry, hot, and dusty, with a 
parched landscape, where, except on the mountains, 
shade-trees grow with great difficulty. To build at- 
tractive homes in such a region, is a work of immense 
toil. In the winter the roads are almost impassable, 
and all social communication is excessively impeded. 
No doubt, whatever the inventive brain and unbound- 
ed energy of our countrymen can accomplish to over- 
come the obstacles of Nature, will be done in the in- 
terior, even as equal obstacles have been overcome on 
the coast. The bare and sunny hills will be covered 
with vineyards, the treeless plains will be irrigated, 
orchards and the trees of Australia will take the 
place of our shade-trees, railroads will be built, and 
there will be many a pretty village on the slopes of 
the Sierras ; still, wealth will never remain there.; 
fortunes will always be spent on the coast. Even 
the valleys of the Coast Range itself, as one ap- 
proaches the eastern border (for it must be remem- 
bered that this so-called ^' Range " is really a wide 
tract of mountain, hill, valley, and intervale), are ex- 
ceedingly uncomfortable in summer, and very difficult 
of access in winter. There is something almost pa- 
thetic in the immense efforts made in some of these 



46 THE NEW WEST. 

valleys to contrive places of amusement or summer 
resort for the San Franciscans. The ^^ Springs " are 
generally little wooden houses, scattered about in a 
flat, treeless valley, under the focus of a reverberat- 
ing furnace of hills, where the heat reaches 100 de- 
grees in the shade, and whose only ornaments, after 
great expense, are a few young and straggling orna- 
mental shrubs. They are said all to be non-paying 
enterprises in competition with the capital and the 
coast. 

Within seventy miles from San Francisco there is 
a fertile valley where, I am assured, the wheat will 
have to be fed to hogs, so difficult is it of access. 

Besides the concentration of farmers and the people 
who desire to spend their money, climate assures to 
San Francisco the superiority in manufactures over 
the interior. Here laborers can do more work than 
any where else in California. There will be fewer days 
lost from heat or cold. Energy is greater here. The 
labor of each man is more efficient. Capital can 
accomplish more and derive greater profits in this city 
than in the same branches elsewhere. The population 
will be the most industrious working population in the 
world. Moreover, education must center here. No 
parent who desires to send his child away for educa- 
tion, would think of sending him to Stockton, or the 
towns in the mountains, even if they possessed the 
most distinguished institutions, for the climate is too 
trying away from the coast. A pretty suburb of San 
Francisco, Oakland, across the Bay, is already draw- 
ing to itself all the best educational institutions and 



SA:^ FRANCISCO AS A PORT. 47 

most intelligent society of the State. Here, under a 
climate even milder than that of the capital, and yet 
cool and invigorating, children from the whole Pacific 
coast are being educated, and this is undoubtedly to be 
the intellectual center of the whole region Avest of the 
Sierras. Climate compels it. 

Every one knows that Nature, so far as commercial 
relations are concerned, has evidently intended this 
city to be the outlet and entrepot of the Pacific coast. 
Every link of communication and commerce must end 
here. There is no port on the coast, from Victoria to 
Panama, which can for a moment compare with San 
Francisco in natural advantages. She has an imme- 
diate back-country which so far surpasses that of New 
York in the production of fruit and grain, as Illinois sur- 
passes Connecticut. She is linked, by steamboat and 
railroad, to the richest wheat-lands and orchards and 
gardens ever granted by a bountiful Nature to the 
hand of man. The whole mining interest of this State 
and Nevada empties its golden and silver streams into 
this port. She must feed and clothe and purchase 
for the whole mining population of the Sierras, and 
for the interior. All the trade with the northern 
coast and Oregon, in ice, fish, timber, and grain, cen- 
ters here, and equally the commerce in tropical fruit, 
wheat, hides, quicksilver, bullion, and manufactures 
with Mexico and South America. Here will be the 
terminus and outlet of the great Pacific Railroad, the 
expectations from which are no doubt greatly exag- 
gerated, but which must pour in cheap labor here, and 
supply the central part of the continent with teas, 



48 THE T^EW WEST. 

clothing, and provisions from the Pacific coast. Here, 
too, is to be the opening of the new and as yet utterly 
unknown trade with the Oriental countries and the 
British colonies. The imagination which sees in the 
coming centuries new and vigorous Anglo-Saxon 
Eepublics on the islands of the Southern Ocean, and 
beholds an awakening and a new growth of the Oriental 
societies in Japan and China, and pictures the great 
bonds of commerce in steamer and railway which will 
connect Europe and the hundred millions of the Ameri- 
can Republic with the industry, invention, and natu- 
ral products of the vast East, and their teeming 
populations, and then remembers that the only outlet 
and link of this immense commerce and travel must 
be through this Golden Gate of the California capi- 
tal — may well be pardoned for the most extravagant 
expectations of the future of this City. The inhabi- 
tants evidently have fully entered into this dream of 
the future. The prices of city-lots are a good evi- 
dence. It is plainly a city of expectations. A stranger 
entering it, and hearing the conversation of the citi- 
zens, would at once imagine this was the capital of 
millions of population. He soon learns with surprise 
that the whole population of California is only about 
half that of New York city and suburbs, some 500,000, 
and that of this, San Francisco has about the quar- 
ter — 125,000. But the citizens are right. Such is 
the wonderful quahty of nature here, and the selected 
energy of the Americans, that the five hundred 
thousand are equal to millions elsewhere. 



CHAPTER V. 

BUILDING ASSOCIATIONS — THE MINT — SOCIAL LIFE. 

It is remarkable that San Francisco should have 
already excelled New York in one of those contriv- 
ances of civiHzation which enable the laboring man 
to have a home. Every one knows that with us the 
great misfortune of the laboring and mechanical 
classes is that they are forced to live crowded in 
tenement or boarding houses, and that their families 
have not the pleasures and advantages of a separate 
house. The inventive brain of the ingenious popula- 
tion on this coast has early seen and guarded against 
this risk. Land is as high, relatively to the wealth, 
in and around this city, as about New York. Interest 
is much higher, and it is proportionately much more 
difficult for poor men to borrow. But every mechanic 
and small shop-keeper and laborer is anxious to 
possess his own house, and he is enabled to attain it 
in the following manner : 

He has saved, we ^»11 suppose, five hundred dol- 
lars, with which he h« purchased a small lot in the 
city or its suburbs. Vi ^th the purchase deed in hand, 
he goes to the associations called the ^^ Building, 
Loan, and Savings Societies," and attempts to get a 
loan on his lot, for the purpose of building. The So- 
ciety first satisfy themselves of the soundness of the 
title, and the value of the ground, and then loan, say 



50 THE NEW WEST. 

three-quarters of the sum, on a mortgage upon the 
property. This they can safely do, on account of the 
increasmg value of real estate here, and the improve- 
ments purposed. The mechanic then makes his first 
contract with the carpenters and begins his building. 
With this contract to present to the Society, he now 
secures another loan, we will say of five hundred dol- 
lars, giving them a lien on the house, which shall take 
precedence even of ^^the mechanic's lien," and this 
loan is to be payable in monthly installments. In this 
way he may build a house worth one thousand or one 
thousand five hundred dollars, repaying also a portion 
of the loan, monthly, from his savings, and giving the 
Association the security of the building, and the en- 
hanced value of the ground. As interest, he only pays 
monthly, at the rate of ten or twelve per cent, per 
annum. Frequently, a person from another class, a 
professional or business man of moderate means, not 
having sufficient ready money at once to build a 
home, or not wishing to disturb profitable investments, 
secures a loan on similar terms from these Savings 
and Building Associations, and is enabled to have a 
comfortable house. The result of this happy contriv- 
ance is that this city and its suburbs are -full of 
what to an economist's eye ought to be the happiest 
sight — poor men's homes. So good is the security 
that but little has ever been lost by these associations, 
and their annual dividends are from ten to fifteen per 
cent. 

One, the Hibernia Savings and Loan Society, re- 
ceived, in 1867, $6,247,045 in deposits, and loaned 



BUILDING SOCIETIES. 51 

$5,939,773, earning on this $312,086, and having on 
hand a reserve fund of $146,493, and cash, $518,426. 
The Savings Union received, in 1867, $1,312,313 
in deposits, and loaned $1,259,258, earning $84,206, 
and having on hand $109,644. The Building, Loan, 
and Savings Society have a capital stock and deposit 
of $850,000, and have declared a dividend of one and 
a half per cent, a month. Their loans are not stated. 
Of these associations, the Hibernia declares ten per 
cent., the Savings Union ten on ordinary and fifteen 
on ^^ term deposits," and others, which I have not men- 
tioned, reach as high as sixteen percent. The great pro- 
portion of their loans is made for building-purposes. It 
will show the prosperity of the laboring classes in this 
city, to mention that four savings societies present 
now an aggregate amount of deposits of $12,896,239, 
and eight of $17,165,597. The principal part of 
these deposits was from servants and laborers. The 
aggregate deposits in the State avefrage $640 to each 
positor, and in the city, $720. In New York State, 
the average is $270 to each depositor ; in Massachu- 
setts, $214 ; in Rhode Island, $340 5 in Connecticut, 
$239.60; and in Boston $191. But in California 
the deposits are gold. 

In other words, with flour at present rates, the 
average deposits in New York are equal to seventeen 
barrels of flour for each person, and in San Francisco, 
to one hundred and six barrels — or six times as much. 
Probably, in no city of the world, are the laboring 
classes in such prosperity. Almost every mechanic 
has his nice little house and flower-garden ; and as 



52 THE IS'EW WEST. 

you go about among the people, you hear of this lady's 
cook havmg a thousand dollars in bank, or this 
one's chambermaid owning a city lot, or another's 
hired man already possessing a farm worth a thou- 
sand or two. Unlike the higher classes, they do not 
throw their wages into gambling mining speculations, 
but are said to invest in land, or to deposit in savings 
banks ; and with interest at from ten to fifteen per 
cent., these deposits accumulate fast. 

San Francisco must be a kind of paradise for fe- 
male servants. A '^ girl of all work " gets $30 a 
month in gold, with her expenses scarcely greater 
than in New York ; chambermaids receive from $20 
to $25, and good female cooks even as high as $45. 
Male servants do not receive so high in proportion. 

A cook for laboring men will receive $40, ranch 
cook, $50 per month ; coachmen, $40 ; a farm hand 
of all work, $60 ; and even a Chinaman gets often 
$1.50 a day and food. Good teamsters get from $60 
to $70 a month ; blacksmiths, $75 ; carpenters from 
$3 to $4 a day, and board, in the country ; roughs car- 
penters from $50 to. $60 a month; and a boy on a 
stock-ranch will receive $25. It will be imagined 
that under such wages, with flour at $6 to $7 (gold) 
a barrel, and beef at twelve to twenty cents, the 
savings of the laboring classes accumulate rapidly, 
and the laborer is often the capitalist at the same 
time. 

Perhaps in the opposite condition of things in New- 
York will lie the difficulty of inaugurating building- 
associations, for our mechanics, with all their high 



LABOPw EXCIIAl^GE. 53 

wages, are not saving much, and it may be that tliey 
could not pay tlie installments on these building loans. 
But in a large city like New York, there are certainly 
enough persons with moderate savings, who would 
gladly borrow to build on such terms, but who now 
are not enabled to have their ovm houses, and are 
forced to the discomforts of tenement houses, or of 
boarding-houses, and to see their children growing 
up under evil associations. Who will imitate the 
Califomians in remedying this evil ? 

THE LABOR EXCHANGE. 

One of the remarkable instances of the intelligence 
and humanity of this new community was the estab- 
lishment, in 1SG8, of the ^^ Labor Exchange.'^ 

Before that year, San Francisco had always had 
more work than workers, but, owing to the cheap 
fare of the steamers, thousands of laborers were then 
suddenly poured into the city, and the question was 
<^ what to do with them 1 ^' 

The Exchange was immediately organized by the 
citizens, and the unemployed labor at once trans- 
ferred to the rural districts. Here is a statement of 
its workings for the first twenty-three days : 

*' On April 27, the California Labor and Employment Exchange 
opened its doors for business, and by Friday evening, May 22, four- 
teen hundred and seventy-five persons had been furnished with em- 
ployment without fee or charge. Men who have been hanging about 
the city for v/eeks, looking vainly for jobs, and never happening to 
apply at the right place at the right moment, have been brought into 
communication with employers who needed their services. Farm 
laborer:^, plowmen, milkers, and teamsters, who were anxious for 
work, but who were afraid to set out on tedious tramps over the 



54 THE NEW WEST. 

length and breadth of the State in search of engagements, have been 
dispatched direct to the places where their services are required. 
The Exchange has placed over fifteen hundred men in employment, 
but yet it has not been able to fill every demand. The orders of em- 
ployers wanting workmen have been larger than the supply of work- 
people. The Exchange could have found situations for twenty-five 
hundred men of the particular qualifications wanted, had they pre- 
sented themselves. 

"The greatest number of orders have been for general laborers; 
of these, demands for nine hundred and two had been registered up 
to Friday evening. The wages offered have ranged from $1.50 to ^2 
per day, and from $25 to $50 per month when boarded. The wages, 
both with and without board, are computed in gold coin. For farm 
laborers, demands for one hundred and twenty-three have been re- 
gistered at wages from $1.50 to $2 per day without board, and $30 to 
$45 per month with board. For teamsters, sixty-eight orders were 
registered, at wages, without board, of $2 per day, and $25 to $35 
per month with board. For lumbermen, thirty-six demands were 
registered, and the wages oflTered per month are $25 to $50, and even 
higher for skilled Canadians. For tracklayers, railroad hands, thirty 
demands were registered at $2 per day. For w^ood-choppers, thirty- 
three demands, at $1.50 to $2 per day, or $40 per month and found. 
For house painters, twenty-six, at $3 to $4. For carriage painters, 
five demands, at $3 per day. For milkers, twenty-eight demands, at 
$30 to $40 per month and found. For stone masons, fifteen demands, 
and the wages ofi'ered are $3 to $5 per day. For sash and blind 
makers, ten demands, at $2 to $4.50 per day, according to skill. 
For quartz miners, ten demands, wages offered, $40 per month and 
board. For wagon makers, nine demands, with ofiers of $3. 50 to 
$4 per day without board, and $G0 per month with board. The above 
are the demands in a few trades, selected almost at random, from the 
books of the Exchange. Hardly a trade, except such manufactures 
as have not yet been established on the coast, is unrepresented in the 
Secretary's list of demands. It is a significant hint, however, that 
among all the twenty-five hundred demands, only one employer sent 
an order for a clerk. Let the young gentlemen in this city who are 
wasting their lives in the vain hope of something " turning up," and 
those abroad who think of immigrating to California, notice this. 
In the twenty-three first days the office has been open, there were 
twenty-four hundred and ninety nine applications for men who could 
perform some one of the several varieties of manual labor, and only 



THE Mi:s-T. 55 

one for a clerk. The men who persist in their search for casj clerk- 
ships, after tliat intelligence, must indeed have hopeful temperaments : 
thej must have the spirit that will hope on when all ground for hope 
is dead." — Evening Bulletin. 

THE SAX FRANCISCO MIXT. 

One of the best examples of organization and hon- 
esty on tliis coast is the United States Mint of this city, 
under one of those gentlemen Avho at once inspire con- 
fidence, even in an acquaintance — R. B. SwAix, Esq. 
It would hardly be interesting to my readers to give 
a technical discription of this most important estab- 
lishment. At first sight, it seems a center of reck- 
lessness and waste : piles of gold and silver bars lie 
on trucks or scattered about in heaps ; bags of gold 
dust are emptied out, Avliile crucibles of the precious 
metal are melted and ladled out, as if it were melting 
lead ; ingots are pressed, or chipped, or thrown around 
as if they were of clay, and bushels of yellow double- 
eagles and eagles, or bright half-dollars, are poured 
out and measured. ^^ Surely some chips or fragments 
must disappear, or particles will go up the chimney, 
or workmen will carry off occasional pieces," is always 
said. And when to this is added the fact that this 
gold and silver comes from twelve thousand different 
depositors, and that it requires sixty thousand separate 
assays, we may judge what honesty and organization 
are required in the management of such an establish- 
ment. So necessary is loss or wastage, that the Gov- 
ernment allows one-ffth of one per eent. on the amount 
of bullion manipulated. This legal wastage in gold 
would be in one year, $59,810.52, for this mint : un- 



QQ THE NEW WEST. 

der Mr. Swain's management, it was, in fact, but 
$2,126.30 in 186G. And in silver, there was not only 
no loss, but a gain of $3,114.G4 (owing to tlie silver 
contained in gold), though the legal loss was $3,290.80. 
^^The exhibit of the coiner is fully as remarkable. 
The amount of gold bidlion, delivered to Mr. Schmolz, 
coiner, during the year 186G, was $29,948,725.21. 
The amount returned by him during the same period 
was $29,947,221.83; showing his actual wastage to 
be $1,503.38 ; the legal limit being $44,923.08. The 
amount of silver bullion delivered to him during the 
year was $956,549.05 ; the amouut returned by him 
was $956,500.67. Actual wastage, $48.38; legal 
limit, $1,913.10. In other words, the gold wastage 
of the melter and refiner was 3.56-100 per cent, of 
the limit allowed by law ; the gold wastage of the 
coiner being 3.34-100 per cent. ; and the coiner's 
silver wastage, 2.53-100 per cent, of the legal limit. 

1 8G6 . Legal Limit. 

Coiner's actual loss (gold) $1,503 38 $44,923 G8 

Coiner's actual loss (silver) 48 38 1,913 10 

M. &, E. actual loss (gold) 2,126 30 59,810 52 

$3,678 C6 $106,646 70 
M. & R. actual gain (silver) $3,114 64 3,290 80 

Total actual loss $563 42 $109,937 50 

^' The manipulation of $30,000,000, with a loss of a 
little over $500, is unprecedented in the history .of the 
IJnited States Mint and its branches. The wastage 
of the preceding three years, under the present ar- 
rangement, has been almost equally remarkable.'' 
It may be imagined that such a result is not gained 



A MISSTIS-G GOLD-PIECE. 57 

without great care and labor. All the walls, pits, 
troughs, flues, chimneys, and floors, are carefully 
cleaned and scraped, ^^ chemical detectives^' are called 
in to detect a missing particle of gold, the grating 
under the feet catches many portions, and even the 
clothes of the workmen are never taken from the 
building, but are burned at the end of the year, and 
the gold particles in them are returned to the crucible. 
So close is the accountability of one department to 
another, that a five dollar piece was missed recently, 
and traced from one room to another, and finally came 
down to one very honest and respectable employe. 
He could give no account of the loss, but oiFered to 
resign if the Superintendent entertained any suspi- 
cion. The whole matter, however, was cleared up by 
a lucky thought of the watchman to look into the 
oflice coat of the suspected employed, where the miss- 
ing piece was found caught in some portion of the 
garment. 

I was glad to see that one important branch was 
entirely carried on by women — that is, the weighing 
of the coins. This very nice work is said to be better 
done by women, from their more delicate touch. They 
are only occupied some five hours a day, and receive 
high wages — I think $75 a month. 

It is interesting to hear of the confidence of the 
miners, in this "institution." Packages of bullion 
wiU lie for years unclaimed, and deposits often come 
without any demand for voucher, or receipt, and some- 
times without the depositor's name. 

The Mint was established in 1854, and, since that 



b8 THE NEW WEST. 

time, has coined over $240,000,000, or half the 
amount coined by the Philadelphia Mint since 1793. 
It had accommodations for coining $5,000,000 per 
annum. The coinage has usually quadrupled this esti- 
mate of the Government; in 1865, under Superinten- 
dent Swain, reaching $22,000,000. In one quarter 
of that year, $7,000,000 were coined, $2,000,000 
more than the estimated annual coinage. The de- 
posits that year amounted to $22,000,000, of which 
California contributed $12,000,000 (gold), Idaho, $3,- 
000,000 (silver), Oregon, $1,000,000 (silver). These 
figures are about the average proportion. 



MINT STATISTICS. 



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60 THE NEAV WEST. 

EIGHT-HOUR LAW. 

Though the condition of the California laboring 
classes is so remarkable in point of comfort and 
prosperity, the great movement of Labor against 
Capital in the Eastern States — the effort to gain 
a larger share of the profits of capital by means 
of an ^^ Eight "Hour Lavf'^ — has reached the Pacific 
slope. I witnessed a most imposing, wellrdressed, 
and orderly procession of mechanics and laborers, who 
were combining to get ten hours' wages for eight 
hours' work. The men looked precisely like our 
mechanics at home, perhaps a shade more sun-burnt, 
but strong, active, and intelligent. There is some- 
thing always impressive in any great movement of 
the laboring class ; and this or similar combinations 
are sweeping round the civilized world. They are 
perfectly legitimate on the part of the laborers, and, 
like trades unions and strikes, they are combinations 
against capital, and the only method that the laborer 
has of securing a larger portion of the profits of his 
employment. But, on the other hand, capital has an 
equally good right to oppose them, and secure all it 
can from the production which could not be carried 
on without it. The hosh which many of our papers 
utter about this struggle, and the passage of eight- 
hour laws by our Legislatures, seem to m6 in the 
highest degree absurd. 

Here, in California, however, the movement is pe- 
culiarly unjustifiable, and in its results, likely to be 
very injurious to the public interest. Labor has now 
an enormous share of the profits of production, as is 



EIGHT -nOUE LAW. 61 

sliown bv its condition, in the facts mentioned above. 
Capital is becoming more abundant and enjoys less 
profits, as is proved by the low rate of interest, com- 
pared with that of former years. Large numbers of 
the laborers are now capitalists. This effort to raise 
the rate of wages twenty-five per cent. Avill either 
force capital to emigrate to more profitable fields, or 
will compel it to introduce cheap labor, which will 
benefit the State, but not the Eight-Hour party. In 
the mean time, a great deal of production will be in- 
terrupted, and the development of the State retarded. 
From all we can hear, the eight hour movement will 
soon fall to the ground. Great corporations, like the 
Pacific Mail Company, are already closing some of 
their works till they can introduce cheaper labor, and 
all employers have the great resource of Chinese emi- 
gration to turn to, for cheap and sufficiently indus- 
trious working men. 

One good custom in San Francisco, is selling al- 
most all products of the soil by weight instead of 
measure. This ought to be the practice everywhere 
in the United States, and would be much fairer to the 
consumers. 

A singular result of the want of competition on 
small dealers here, is that the vine-growers are glad 
to sell the Mission grape at a cent and a half a pound 
on the vineyards, and do not dispose of nearly all 
their product, while the retailers never take less than 
five cents, and often get ten cents, and yet a great 
deal rots on their hands. The want of small change 
works badly, too, against the consumer. Thus, if I 



62 THE NEAV WEST. 

want to buy a newspaper whose price is ten cents and 
pay a quarter, I get back ten, losing twenty-five per 
cent, on the transaction ; so with all retail purchases. 
The dealers themselves, however, buy in quantities, 
and do not lose. It is like our uncertain standard of 
value in the Eastern States : the loss is always on the 
consumer. Smaller change than a ^^bit'^ (a dime) 
is seldom seen. What a contrast to South Germany, 
where one receives change to one-tenth of a cent ! 

THE MANUFACTURES OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
The manufactures of this city are already a most 
important branch of its business, and are estimated 
to reach the value of $25,000,000 annually. They 
are, however, in the hands of comparatively few cap- 
italists. Thus the Eolling Mills, the Golden City 
Chemical and Assay Works, and the Powder Mills 
belong to not more than thirty stockholders. The 
three Woolen Mills have not more than a dozen stock- 
holders, though with a capital of $3,000,000, and pro- 
ducing about $2,000,000 worth of goods annually. 
Eight millions of the manufacturing stocks of the 
city are said to be owned by not more than fifty per- 
sons. Nothing in woolen manufacture in the world, 
surpasses the blankets made here in the Mission 
Woolen Mills. They would make our housekeepers' 
eyes water to see them. The ordinary white house- 
blanket, for fifteen dollars (gold), are far beyond any- 
thing in our market, and the magnificent twenty-five 
dollar white blankets (used mainly as gifts) are im- 
mensely superior to any European goods. This is 



CALIFOENIA BLANKETS. 63 

owing partly to the quality of tlie wool, and partly to 
the fact that there is no temptation to use cotton in 
the manufacture. I went over the grand factory ; 
Chinese were managing almost every loom, their wa- 
ges generally being about one dollar per diem. The 
best camping and army blankets are made here. 

Remarkably good ladies' cloaks and woolens for 
business suits are also manufactured in this city. Of 
these three woolen mills, the Pioneer employs 350 
hands, and run 72 looms and 6,000 spindles. They 
manufactured in 1866, 30,000 pairs blankets, 60,000 
yards broadcloth and cassimeres, and 375,000 yards 
flannels. The Mission Mills, of whose blankets I have 
spoken, employ 425 hands, and have 50 looms, and 
5,000 spindles. In 1866, they manufactured 80,000 
pairs blankets, 125,000 yards broadcloth and cassi- 
meres, and 500,000 yards flannel and cJoakings. 
The third mill is at MarysviUe. 

Among the other manufactures of the city and 
neighborhood, are Mayer'' s cotton wadding and bat- 
ting — production about 2,000 pounds per day; and 
cotton goods from the Oakland Cotton Manufacturing 
Company — annual product, about 100,000 yards shirt- 
ing and 50,000 yards sheeting. In cordage^ the Pa- 
cific Manufactory turns out about 2,000,000 pounds, 
assorted work. The various assaying establishments 
are important, assaying in 1867, $31,608,509 worth 
of gold and silver. 

There are also Chemical Factories^ Oil WorTcs^ Pe- 
troleum Refineries J and Glass Worhs, 

The Iron Foundries, Boiler Shops j and Boiling Mills 



64 THE NEW WEST. 

are very successful manufacturing enterprises. The 
value of iron manufactures for 1867, was $1,041,189. 
In the Pacific Iron Works, I was fortunate in making 
the acquaintance of one of the leading managers, Mr. 
Ira p. Pankix— a gentleman of such intelligence 
and character as to give one a high impression of 
the business men of California, whom he so often 
represents in public matters. 

Great quantities of mining machinery are being 
made in this and other factories for the whole Pa- 
cific slope and Mexico : — one quartz mill has been sent 
even to North Carolina. 

There are also lead works, saw mills, flour mills, 
rice mills, sugar refineries, leather, shoe, clothing, and 
furniture factories. Breweries are found in almost 
every town of the State ; and, owing to the quality 
of the hops, the beer of the Pacific States is far su- 
perior to our miserable mixture in the Eastern States. 

Gold and silver manufacture is, of course, a highly 
important branch of business and the work frequently 
shows a great deal of taste. The principal establish- 
ments are those of Tucker, Shreve, and Robert 
Sherwood. 

There are many other successful branches of manu- 
facture which it is not necessary to describe here. 

SOCIAL LIFE. 

Society in San Francisco has the defects of society 
in New York, much aggravated, with but few of the 
corresponding good qualities of the Atlantic city. 

There is no unity to it ; it is broken up into innu- 



SOCIAL LIFE 65 

merable cliques and sets, and there are very few 
houses which can gather in them the best men, 
representing each' his department, or profession, or 
craft. The general tone estimates each man by 
money, and T think there is a profound but concealed 
contempt for any one living mainly for ideas or prin- 
ciples, the results of whose Avork are not shown by 
pecuniary rewards. 

There is a certain clique of the suddenly-rich, 
mining speculators, successful stock-gamblers, and 
others, who indulge in the most unbounded extrava- 
gance of living — giving parties costing many thou- 
sands of dollars, and displaying all that is possible in 
equipage and jewelry. Connected with these, are 
various women of a more or less doubtful position, 
whose previous history is uncertain, and whose present 
means of living and display are unknowm. 

This set, however, is an exception. The most of 
the people are just such plain, intelligent, active per- 
sons as one sees in New England tOA\Tis — living, how- 
ever, with less hospitality, and in poorer houses. 
Here and there are families of much cultivation and 
refinement, and with neat, English-like, comfortable 
homes. The expense of servants, cramps of course 
all house-keeping ; but the few each family has, are 
far smarter and cleverer than ours in the Eastern 
cities; they are evidently the best of their class. 

As might be expected, they feel their position 
greatly, and give their mistresses no end of trouble. 
If the troubles of mistresses with servants are a meas- 
ure of the prosperity of the working classes, in Cali- 



6Q THE NEW WEST. 

fornia the laborers must be in an El Dorado. With 
one family I Iniow, the chambermaid left because the 
lady spoke disrespectfully of her ^^beau'^; the cook 
gave warning because the waitress reflected on her 
personal appearance ; and if, at any time, it should 
happen that the overflowing tables of the Californians 
have delicacies which the domestics do not share, they 
are liable to take summary leave. As a general thing, 
each family of moderate means has one smart girl, at 
thirty dollars per month wages, who does all the work. 

The curse of Californian society is its evil-speak- 
ing. It is rare to hear any one well spoken of. 
There seems to be hardly a name so honored as not 
to have a shade of scandal on it. One reason may 
be the fact that every individual is thoroughly 
known, and peccadillos and sins which, in our crowd- 
ed communities are forgotten or never brought to 
light, are there open and remembered. The distance, 
too, from the great world cultivates the habit of small 
interests and petty gossip. Then, no doubt, many men 
and some women, when they first came here, felt 
themselves somewhat beyond the restraints of moral- 
ity and civilization, and gave way to actions of which 
they would be ashamed now. No American commu- 
nity ever had so many energetic and educated men in 
proportion to its numbers, and none so many adven- 
turers. 

The fault in the foundation of society has reached 
the top, and wiU affect ah future structures built upon 
it. Cahfornia began its growth with mining spec- 
ulation ; the fever of those first years of tremendous 






SPECULATIO]^'. 67 

excitement will never altogether leave the blood of her 
people. 

Venture — on a grand scale, it is true — and specula- 
tion, and throwing for great chances, will always 
characterize them. Plodding, patient industry will 
never stand in as high esteem on the Pacific coast, 
as with us. The same peculiarities reach every de- 
partment of life. People have a passion for achiev- 
ing great results at once, and are too often indifferent 
as to the means. A friend of mine, a clergyman 
of much espritj speaking of a well known agent of 
the Pacific Mail Company, whose stiff integrity had 
annoyed some of the citizens, said to me, with a 
characteristic epigram ^^It makes those Californians 
wince and howl to strike against even a chip of the Rock 
of Ages ! " 

The "pessimists^' here always say, "The worst about 
the Californians is that you cannot depend on them ! '^ 
A distinguished savant said to me, "The thing that has 
annoyed me most, is that every one lies so ! '^ (mean- 
ing more especially the mining people). I think, how- 
ever, this is all exaggerated. Old experienced busi- 
ness men, of the highest integrity, assert that they 
have nowhere known business, in the older States, 
conducted on such honorable principles. I, myself, 
have happened to know a number of instances of Cali- 
fornians refusing to take advantage of legal oppor- 
tunities where much profit could have been made, 
from those with whom they were dealing. 

And take such a fact as this, stated by Mr. COLE, 
Senator from California, in the United States Senate : 



eS THE NEW WEST. 

^^In support of what I liave said in behalf of the 
officers on the Pacific side, I will call attention to a 
statement which I have received from the Treasury 
Department, in reference to the whisky tax. The 
amount of tax upon whisky collected in the ten dis- 
tricts included within the cities of New York and 
Brooklyn — that is, the first nine districts of New 
York and the Thirty-second District of New York — 
reached, last year, the sum of $1,8G7,032. The 
amount collected in the San Francisco district, the 
first district in California, during the same period, was 
$1,803,458. Nearly as much was collected in that one 
district as ivas collected in all the ten districts in Nciv 
YorJij included in the cities of New YorJc and BrooMyn.^^ 

It must be remembered that there was never a 
place of such temptation as California. The prizes 
for ^^ sharp-practice '^ are enormous, and public opin- 
ion is not strict. Take land-titles alone. The whole 
subject is in great confusion. A squatter's claim 
may sometimes be as good as a Mexican title ; a 
school warrant placed suddenly on lands supposed to 
be private property, but which, owing to defect of 
title, may turn out to be public, will bring in great 
returns. Thus, the casting a shade over any title, 
from whatever cause, has become a kind of black-mail 
on the unfortunate owners, and offers both to lawyers 
and speculators, most lucrative returns. It is not 
considered a respectable means of making money, 
and yet is not illegal, and is therefore a temptation. 
The enormous fluctuations in minmg stocks are an- 
other fruitful source of semi-dishonest practices. 



^'feeezhn-^g out.'' 69 

A board of directors can instruct its Superinten- 
dent to extract non-paying ores ; they can cause dam- 
aging reports to be spread, then lay assessments to 
bring a stock down to the lowest point, thus ^^ freez- 
ing out" the unhappy stockholders, and causing them 
to sell at great loss ; and then buy in, and by a re- 
verse process bring up the stock to a most exaggera- 
ted value^ till they can sell out at an immense profit. 
All these sharp dodges, of course, are practiced in New 
York, but not so openly, and against the current of 
public opinion. In California, the foremost bankers 
are publicly said to engage in them. As so much 
property is invested in mines whose value can 
be so suddenly changed, the temptation to sharp 
practice is greatly intensified. It is equally so with 
the courts. A decision on a mining claim will in- 
volve millions of dollars ; a de Lay about the decision, 
an opinion from a Judge expressed in private, will 
carry the stock up or down, and enable one or other 
party, or even the Judge himself, to make large sums, 
though, at last, his verdict may be given solely on law 
and evidence. Innumerable chances are thus con- 
stantly afforded designing and shrewd men to make 
sudden fortunes by doubtful means — more, proballj^, 
than in any other community in the world. Numbers of 
persons resist the temptations, and present examples 
of integrity unsurpassed in the older States, but 
many have yielded to them. 

The great virtues of Californian society are its in- 
telligence, energy, and, above all, its generosity. There 
never was such a wide-awake community, open to all 



70 THE NEW WEST. 

improvements, applying mind incessantly to the de- 
velopment of the country, ready to adopt, and ingeni- 
ous to apply all possible inventions and discoveries 
for the advancement of the material resources of the 
State. The most interesting thing about California, to 
an American, is to observe what results the scheming 
Yankee brain can bring about in the finest climate 
which the Anglo-Saxon race has ever enjoyed, and 
with a soil which is unequalled in the world for varie- 
ty and wealth of products — the ^^New West,'' settled 
by a new race. 

No fear of expense or trouble ever deters the Cali- 
fornian from any enterprise. 

The progress of the State in all departments of la- 
bor and education and material and mental develop- 
ments, during the last ten years, has been unsurpassed 
anywhere in the world. The citizens are very proud 
of their State, and few men leave here to return to 
our coast for a residence, who do not regret it. The 
individual is of far more importance in California than 
in older communities ; and the incessant whirl of life 
becomes a great attraction to those who are in it. 
The women, however, do not generally like the 
State, and sigh for our more quiet and cultivated 
life. 

Though such tremendous efforts are put forth to 
make money here, no where is it less valued. The 
Califomian is the most generous of men. He scatters 
money with- a lavish hand. No American will ever 
forget the bountiful contributions from this coast to 
our Sanitary Commission during the war. And yet 



HAND-ORGAN EXHIBITION. 71 

it is a peculiarly impulsive generosity. One of the 
drollest scenes ever exhibited in a civilized communi- 
ty was enacted in San Francisco while I was there. 
Two politicians made a bet on the late election, and 
the loser was to march down the main business street 
playing a hand-organ. Before he appeared at the 
set time, the happy thought occurred to some philan- 
thropic citizens to raise money there and then for the 
treasuries of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Or- 
phan Asylums, which were very low. Accordingly, 
notice was given, and some well-known citizens fol- 
lowed the unlucky organist, in a carriage, with can- 
vas bags. The street was packed from one end to 
the other, the houses black with a laughing, excited 
crowd; women and children were trampled under 
foot in the eagerness to see the procession. With the 
first few yards, a shower of silver coin began from 
bystanders and windows and house tops ; miners 
emptied their pouches, merchants their purses, and 
draymen their pockets ; half-dollars poured upon the 
organ-grinder; and, in a short time, one big bag 
after another was filled, until some ten thousand 
dollars were ^raised for the orphans, besides provisions 
enough for the whole year. 

The generosity and intelligence of the community 
have enabled them to procure the most able ministry, 
and to support the best conducted press, which any 
city with equal population can boast of in the country. 
The churches are largely attended by men, and a dull, 
inferior preacher finds his pews thinly seated. One 
of the ablest men on the coast is the Rev. Mr. Steb- 



72 THE :n"ew west. 

BINS, tlic Unitarian pastor, w^o occupies a pulpit 
once filled by a man who has become a kind of saint 
in the Pacific States — Thomas Starr King. 

Dr. Stone is a very eloquent and influential preach- 
er for the Congregationalists, and Dr. Eells and 
Dr. Wadsworth, among the Presbyterians, have a 
deep and true influence for good. The general tone 
of society is far less sectarian and narrow than on our 
coast. 

Not enough has yet been done of a practical kind, 
by the Christian bodies here, for the lowest and 
criminal class, or for the intelligent and adventurous 
mining communities. 

The House of Refuge (^^ Industrial School") of the 
city is well conducted, but on the somewhat old con- 
gregated system, and there is not much eftbrt directed 
to the prevention of crime among children. 

There is much kind charity exercised in private 
toward the self-respecting and decent poor, whose 
sufi'erings in California are beyond belief, because 
here men are ashamed to beg. Mr. Swain has given 
the most touching instances of labors among this un- 
fortunate class. Clergymen, in general, occupy in this 
State a very influential and honored position, and 
have fairly remunerative salaries. 

In the press, the Evening Bulletin is, to my mind, 
one of the most valuable and interesting journals in 
the States; the Alta California and Sacramento Union 
stand very high through the country, and are very 
lucrative properties. They all discuss questions with 
much inteUigence and fairness, and are filled with 



NEWSPAPERS. 73 

most valuable information in regard to this coast. 
The Overland Hail, a monthly, is quite equal in 
ability to our monthlies^ and, to my taste, much more 
interesting. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF SAN FRANCISCO A COSMO- 
POLITAN SCHOOL. 

Among those laying the moral foundations of Cali- 
fornia, should never be forgotten the public-spirited 
citizens who have made the school-system what it is. 
Under our Government, beyond all others, the 
school is the ground-work of order and liberty. I 
think, if the time and obstacles be considered, no city 
in the Union has accomplished more for popular edu- 
cation than San Francisco. A regular series of free 
schools has been established for all classes, from the 
primary to schools of a high grade — even to the 
^'Cosmopolitan" and Latin schools. The buildings 
are often large and commodious, with all the modern 
improvements in school furniture and the like. I 
doubt myself the wisdom of these large caravanseries 
of school-children, but, such as they are, they are. fully 
equal to ours in New York; and, spacious as the 
rooms are, they are not sufficient, so that hundreds of 
children, in some wards, are continually turned away. 
Yet some 20,000 children are being educated annuallv, 



THE OBJECT SYSTEM. 75 

at the public expense, in this city, and the school 
levies reach nearly $350,000. 

Mj first visit among the schools was to a large Pri- 
mary, in Tehama street, containing over a thousand 
children. It was interesting to find that the improve- 
ment which we have sought so much to bring before the 
public in New York, and which has been introduced 
into the Industrial Schools of the Children's Aid Society 
with much good eff'ect — the ''■ Object System '' — has al- 
ready been adopted here. The teaching, too, showed 
the effect of a good Training School ] for teaching is 
as much an art as any high mechanical branch, and the 
long experience of years of patient labor in managing 
young minds, can be laid down in almost mathemati- 
cally exact rules and principles. All the suggestive 
methods of the object system, the efforts and inven- 
tion to awaken the faculties and call forth the observ- 
ing powers, are now regularly taught in good training 
schools ; and though a good teacher knows all these 
instinctively, a poor one learns them mechanically, 
and becomes a far better teacher. 

It is disgraceful to be obliged to confess it, but in 
this matter, this young city of the Pacific is already 
far in advance of New York. A ^^ Normal School'' 
for teachers has been in active operation here for 
some time, while ours only dates from 1867. The 
California School, I can bear witness, has a large 
number of young teachers in faithful attendance, who 
are thoroughly taught. It is supported by the State. 
Many of the pupils teach a part of the year in the 
country, and then attend this school during the other 



76 THE ]s■E^y west. 

part^ and teach the classes of children who come to it 
as to any public school. Each teacher is not merely 
drilled theoretically in teaching, but practically in a 
class-room^ with children attending from the neighbor- 
ing ward. I visited also the ^^ Lincoln School/^ which 
is a spacious and handsome building for the purpose, 
with a most awkward and ghastly statue * of our 
revered President in front. Almost every school, 
by the way, has a picture of Lincoln and Staer 
KiNa on its walls. This is a higher grade of school, 
with over a thousand pupils. The instruction which 
I heard, in arithmetic, was thorough, and requiring 
original work from the boys. The teachers were evi- 
dently men of education. The Girls' High School, in 
Bush street, evidently employs as good teachers as 
are found in our best private or public schools. 

The scholars v/ere nicely dressed young girls 
from twelve to eighteen years, under perfect dis- 
cipline. They recited in geometry and physical 
geography in the most creditable manner, drawing 
their own figures in the former, and using different 
lettering from the text-book in the latter. The 
School Committee have apparently not yet heard of 
Guyot's text-books and maps, which are an immense 
advance on anything yet compiled for schools. There 
is no question that geography should begin with 
physical divisions before political, and that the first 
instructions in "place" should be in regard to the 
immediate surroundings of the child, and then be ex- 
tended to those of his county, and State, and country. 



* Fortunately sliaken do"wii since hj an earthquake. 



COSMOPOLITAN SCHOOL. 77 

Tins is the method adopted in the schools of San 
Francisco. They have also adopted the modern the- 
ory that every child can be taught something of music 
and drawings if the work be begun young enough. 
Many of the teachers evidently .possessed a correct 
and free hand in drawing^ and the children learnt it 
readily. 

The fault of these otherwise excellent schools seems 
to be the same as with ours — a too high pressure of 
studies^ too much cramming during a short period. 
This defect is mainly due to the parents, Avho insist 
on their daughters learning everything during a very 
few years ; keeping them for a short time under a far 
greater pressure than are the boys. People must be 
content to extend the time of their children's educa- 
tion, and see them learn thoroughly but more slowly j 
at the same time preserving their physical freshness 
and vigor. But the greatest advance in the San 
Francisco school system is in the 

COSMOPOLITAN SCHOOL. 
This city, as is well known, is made up of various 
nationalities. It was early seen that it was of the 
greatest possible advantage to both Americans and 
foreign-born, to learn each other's language. As the 
Committee on this subject reported to the Board of 
Education : ^^ They felt in their full force the pro- 
found words of Goethe, ' He who knows but his own 
language, does not even know that.' " Accordingly, 
Primary Schools were opened, in which French and 
English, and in others, French and German, were 
taught 5 and these, by regular gradation, culminated 



78 THE NEW V'EST. 



in the excellent school so happily named above — 
the ^^ Cosmopolitan School." Here, all the regu- 
lar school branches, such as reading, grammar, 
geography, history, and arithmetic, are taught in 
French, German, and English. Most of the school 
exercises are conducted in a foreign tongue. It is 
well known that, at a certain tender age, a boy or girl 
catches a foreign language with wonderful readiness, 
such as they never show when more mature : this is 
especially the case if conversation and oral instruction 
be in that tongue. The result of this enlightened 
system in this school was evident. The sons of many 
Americans — some of the wealthiest families in the 
city — were sent here to learn French or German, and 
at the same time to acquire ordinary school instruc- 
tion. These lads recited or answered with a readi- 
ness and purity of accent not often witnessed ; while 
the French and German boys and girls preserved 
their own tongue in grammatical purity (a great 
advantage among a population which so soon depraves 
its language), and learned Enghsh in addition. The 
different grammars were not at all confused by the 
children, in fact, were better learned by the contrast, 
as English grammar is always best learned by our 
children, not in abstract definitions, but by the analy- 
sis of a foreign language, especially if it employ case- 
endings. 

The theory and practical result of this Cosmopo- 
litan School seemed most happy and successful. We 
ought to have in New York a dozen such public 
schools, for our own and the foreign-descended chil- 



SCHOOL SYSTEM. 79 

dren. It is found here that Americans appreciate 
this school better than any nationality, the proportion 
among over one thousand children being fifty per 
cent. American, thirty per cent. German, twenty per 
cent. French. 

The general school system of California has this 
advantage over ours in New York, in that it is more 
centralized, and the teaching profession really deter- 
mine who shall be teachers. The same books are 
used through all the schools of the State, and the 
same rules apply, under the general direction of the 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction. There is 
thus a unity of school management throughout, and 
the latest improvements can be introduced every- 
where. 

No teacher can be anywhere appointed without a 
State certificate, and the Examining Boards are 
always constituted so as to have a majority of teachers 
on them. Thus, if a city ward desire to remove a 
teacher from political motives, they can do so ; but 
they cannot substitute another without an examination 
by the Board, so that, in effect, the appointment of 
teachers is taken out of the hands of politicians, and 
rests with properly chosen persons. The result of 
this system is a remarkably able and well-qualified 
class of teachers in the State. They are well paid, 
too — female teachers in the city receiving from six 
hundred to twelve hundred dollars (gold) per annum, 
board being about thirty dollars per month ; and male 
teachers getting from twelve hundred to two thousand 
five hundred dollars. A country female teacher will 



80 THE NEW WEST. 

frequently receive seventy-five dollars a month, and 
her board will only cost her, say twenty dollars. 
There is a great demand in California for good female 
teachers, and at this time a dozen, with good certifi- 
cates, could be at once employed at salaries of from 
fifty to seventy-five dollars a month. In the Spring 
or "Autumn any competent female teacher might come 
here with the confident expectation of being speedily 
engaged at a good salary in the country districts. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE BIG TREES — PREPARATIONS FOR THE YOSEMITE.* 

The great pleasure trip of the American continent 
will hereafter be the journey to the Yosemite. There 
is no one object of nature in the world — except Ni- 
agara — to equal it in attraction. Whenever the Pa- 
cific Road brings the two coasts within a fortnight of 
each other, innumerable parties will be made up to 
visit it I have been tolerably familiar, by foot-jour- 
neys, with Switzerland, Tyrol, and Norway, and I 
can truly say that no one scene in those grand regions 
can compare equally, in all its combinations, with the 
wonderful Gallon of the Yosemite. It is a matter 
of congratulation, also, to me, that I saw it before any 
road, or coach, or rail-car had approached it. It 
ought not to be visited otherwise than as our party 
journeyed to it — on horses, winding in picturesque 
train over velvety trails, beneath the gigantic pines of 
the Sierras. 

But first, as to the making up of a party. It is of 
the utmost importance that a company should be se- 
lected who will travel slowly, and stop to enjoy ; and 
not ^^do'^ this glorious region, as so many are in the 
habit. A large party is not desirable — six or eight 
are quite enough; and it must be remembered that it 
is much like an Adirondac camping party ; you are 

* Pronounced Tosemity. 



82 THE NEW WEST. 

throAvn necessarily on one another, and are in very 
intimate contact for two or three weeks. The best 
time to start is a week before full moon, in June. At 
that season there are plenty of people in kSan Fran- 
cisco who are ready to make the excursion, and a 
party is easily got together. The water is then at its 
highest in the falls of the valley, the snow is melted, 
and the dust and heat of the central plain are not then 
at their worst, while the night journeys are made mag- 
nificent by the moon. For clothing, the great neces- 
sities in California are always flannel beneath, and 
linen outside. The best dress for gentlemen, is a good 
hunting-shirt of flannel, with a loose morning coat (to 
be worn occasionally), stout pantaloons for riding, and 
heavy walking shoes. For ladies, a full linen suit for 
the coach-drive, and a short linsey dress for horse- 
back. Whatever is worn must come out pretty ef- 
fectually ruined by dust and mud. No wraps or shawls 
are needed, or umbrellas (except for the sun), and no 
heavy luggage should be taken. Knapsacks or small 
leather bags are the best traveling baggage. A valise 
or trunk can be expressed to meet one as he comes 
out, either at Coulterville or Mariposa. 

The whole expense for, say a fortnight from San 
Francisco, ought not to be over one hundred dollars, 
and may be much less. The charges for horses are 
two dollars and fifty cents (gold) per diem, guides tvv^o 
dollars and fifty cents, mule two dollars and fifty cents, 
and inns in the Valley three dollars and fifty cents ; 
on the whole a very expensive trip. The common- 
sense way would be (if one had time) to buy a moun- 



PEEPAKATIONS FOll JOJJRNHY. 83 

tain-mustcang at one of the towns in the Foot Hills for 
thirty dollars, make the trip without a guide (who is 
no more needed than on a turnpike,) and then sell the 
horse at the other end. In this way the whole trip 
could be made for fifty dollars. It is not a severe 
journey ; any lady not an invalid can make it, and no 
other in the world can give more enjoyment. 

Our party started on the steamer in the afternoon 
for Stockton, and next morning, after a comfortable 
breakfast, were booked, by a large, easy, Concord 
coach, for Bear Valley, some 90 miles — fare $10. 
The drive was over an apparently barren, parched 
plain, almost without a tree for fifty miles — the Val- 
ley of the San Joaquin. The first portion passed 
some good wheat-fields, but the most of it Avas through 
a dreary region. The characteristic features are the 
wind-mills at each farm-house for raising water and 
irrigating. It is not, however, so barren a country as 
it looks. Like much of the unpromising-looking 
land in the State, it only needs irrigation to bring 
forth treasures of grain and fruit. Vv^e were troubled 
but little by the dust, as it was so early in the season ; 
but they say that later, the drive is almost intolerable. 

One of our party says he has kno^vn such dust there 
in August that the driver could not see his leaders ; 
and he has heard a passenger cry out in agony, 
^^ Driver, stop, for God's sake! or we shall be suf- 
focated ! '' and the coach has stopped to give all a 
chance to breathe. 

There was nothing of any special interest in the 
towns we passed through : the close of the drive was 



84 THE NE\Y WEST. 

through a superb mountain region by moonlight, and 
it was late when, thoroughly tired out, we reached 
Bear Valley. The next day we drove on through 
Mariposa to an inn, on the edge of the forest, very 
comfortable and neat— ^^ White & Hatch's'^— where 
we were to take horse, and our excursion would fairly 
begin. Horses can be obtained at Mariposa or Bear 
Valley. They are generally mustangs of pied color, 
small and wiry, but the surest-footed creatures possi- 
ble — even surpassing the Norwegian posting-ponies 
Not one in our party slipped or stumbled once, though 
sometimes treading over water-worn, rocky floors, or 
descending as nearly perpendicular mountain-sides as 
a horse could, with a rider on his back. 

Here, after a nice dinner, there was great buck- 
ling and arranging of saddles, and shortening of stir- 
rups, and packing of knapsacks on a most wicked- 
looking mule, which was our baggage animal. 

It may be remarked here that our excellent guide, 
of whom we expected so much help for the ladies, 
was, after the starting, mostly invisible, being occu- 
pied far in the rear in attending to the vagaries of 
this eccentric and unaccountable animal, who usually 
insisted on going down hill when he ought to go up, 
and who had a most malicious propensity for rush- 
ing, with his load, between trees too narrow for 
him, or for making sudden and perverse darts from 
the trail into the depths of some neighboring swamp. 
I can believe the accounts of my friend K., who says 
he has known a mule perfectly good and docile for 
six months, so as to get an opportunity for one spite- 



THE WICKED MULE. S5 

ful kick at his too trusting master, and that after that 
he would be as meek and stupid as before. 

Among all my many traveling experiences in vari- 
ous countries, I do not think I can ever forget the ro- 
mance and the delicious beauty of that first night's 
ride toward the Yosemite. The trail was barely wide 
enough for two to ride abreast, winding under majes- 
tic pines, over mountains, and down Avide, deep dells, 
each step of the horses springing elastic from soft 
pine leaves. The sun soon set, and a magnificent 
moon arose, giving us at one time a broad belt of 
light over the path, and then leaving us to descend 
into a mysterious gulf of darkness, and then casting 
strange shadows and hali-lights through the pine 
branches over our procession of riders. As we pene- 
trated farther into the forest we began to wind about 
beneath trees, such as few of us had ever seen, — the 
superb sugar-pine, perhaps the most perfect tree in 
nature, — here starting with a diameter of from seven 
to twelve feet, and mounting up with most symmetri- 
cal branches to the height — say of Trinity Church 
spire (250 to 260 feet); on the end of its branches, 
cones hanging a foot long. Sometimes we came forth 
from the forest for a few moments, and had grand 
glimpses of great mountain valleys, only partly re- 
vealed in the glorious moonlight. Most of the party 
were old travelers, and were rather impervious to 
sensations, but we all agreed that this was a new one, 
and gave a most promising augury of the Yosemite 
excursion. After fourteen miles — an easy ride — we 



THE NEW WEST. 



all readied Clark's Ranch at a late hour^ ready for 
£upper and bed. 



This ranch is a long, rambling, low house, built 
under enormous sugar-pines, where travelers find ex- 
cellent quarters and rest in their journey to the Valley. 
Clark himself is evidently a character ; one of those 
men one frequently meets in California — the modern 
anchorite — a hater of civilization and a lover of the 
forest — handsome, thoughtful, interesting, and slov- 
enly. In his cabin were some of the choicest m.odern 
books and scientific surveys ; the walls were lined with 
beautiful photographs of the Yosemite ; he knew more 
than any of his guests of the fauna, flora, and geology 
of the State 5 he conversed well on any subject, and 
was at once philosopher, savant^ chambermaid, cook, 
and landlord. 

By a wise selection he has been appointed by the 
State Commission, which has charge of the Yosemite, 
Forest-master, to take care of the wonderful trees, 
which are only at six miles distance. On that Com- 
mission are Messrs. F. L. Olmsted, Prof. J. D. Whit- 
ney, R. W. Raymond, and others well known on this 
coast. It has been a wise provision among the Cali- 
fornia people, which has thus early set aside the mag- 
nificent Canon for public enjoyment for ever, and has 
placed these wonders of the forest beyond the reach 
of the showmen and spoilers who so soon destroy such 
monuments in America. 



CLOTHIEES SIGIS-S. 87 

Mr. Clark seems the very person to be their guar- 
dian. He evidently has a filial reverence for these 
relics of the past — these giants of ancient days. 
When I saw his vigorous action in one matter^ I 
wished we had a Forest-master on the Hudson River. 

During the whole journey to the Sierras^ we had been 
tormented in every beautiful scene by most imperti- 
nent and obtrusive signs of a certain ^^ clothing'^ es- 
tablishment in San Francisco. Just as we stopped 
our horses to take one dreamy gaze through a far- 
away perspective, there would rise up a placard in 
the foreground, ^^ One Hundred Miles to Stockton! 
One Hundred and Fifty to Sowam, Mendam & Co !" 
Did we dismount to recline and drink at a cooling 
spring, we were hardly at our ease on the soft pine 
twigs, when the solitude is desecrated by ^^ Sowam's 
Prize Pantaloons !" on a neighboring tree ; if we 
wander out on a lonely walk for converse with nature 
and our own thoughts, ''Sowam and Mendam's 
Drav/ers" haunt us at every turning. Every exquis- 
ite mountain scene is made hideous by advertise- 
ments, until at last our whole party swore that they 
would go naked their whole lives, rather than buy of 
^^ Sow AM, Mendam & Co." 

This hobgoblin was before us among the Big Trees, 
and in the Yosemite. If anywhere in the world, Sowam 
will be there. We knew it. He would make life 
unendurable there. But Mr. Clark, hearing of our 
fears, reassured us. He said that this thing had been 
attempted by some shop-keepers, and he had stopped 
it summarily 5 and now the Commission had secured 



88 THE NEW WEST. 

an act which made it a penal offence to affix any 
business notices in the Yosemite Valley^ or among the 
Big Trees. Verily ^ California is in the van of cis^ili- 
zation. 

We started at not too early an hour for a forest 
ride to the Trees, Mr. Clark kindly guiding us. 
What may be called the avenue to these hoary mon- 
uments of antiquity, lies through a gigantic forest of 
sugar-pines, themselves some two hundred to two 
hundred and fifty leet high, so that when you reach 
the mighty towers of vegetation you lose a little the 
sense of their vast height. I searched curiously as 
we rode through the forest for the conditions which 
should produce such monsters of growth. It must be 
remembered that the Sequoia gigantea is not found 
merely here, or at Calaveras, and its neighborhood. 
There appears to be a belt of them running along the 
slopes of the Sierras, about four thousand or five thou- 
sand feet above the sea level, and as far south as 
Visalia. They are so plentiful near that place as to be 
sawed for lumber, though what so light a wood could 
be used for, I can hardly think. In the neighborhood 
of the latter place, the Indians report a tree, far in the 
forest, surpassing in grandeur anything ever seen ; 
but thus far, no white man has ever cast eyes on it. 
It is a mistake, too, to suppose the race wearing out. 
I saw both here and in Calaveras young giant Sc^ 
quoiae, beginning patiently their thousand years of 
growth with all the vigor of their grand ancestors ; 
some of but four hundred years, mere youths, were 
growing splendidly. There are fewer young trees here 



THE BIG TREES. 89 

than in Calaveras, because fire or some other cause 
has swept among the under-brush of all trees, and 
must have destroyed many of these burly saplings. 

The Sequoia grows on mountain slopes, where the 
slow wash of water, through ages, brings down minute 
particles of fertilizing rocks, and the decayed vegeta- 
tion of countless centuries, with the moisture of eternal 
springs, water and feed its roots. It enjoys a sun 
of the tropics without a cloud for six months, and has 
the balmy air of the Pacific, with incessant and gentle 
moisture, and a warm covering of snow for its Winter. 
Beneath its roots, the ground never freezes.* As has 
been well said, ^^It has nothing to do but to grow;" 
and so with all the favorable conditions that nature 
can off'er — air and sun and moisture — it pumps up its 
food from the everlasting hills, and builds up its slow, 
vegetable-like substance during century after century 
into a gigantic, symmetrical and venerable pile, while 
nations begin and pass away beneath its shadow. 

Think of lying mider a tree, beneath which the 
cotemporary of Axilla or Constantine might have 
rested, and which shall defy the storm, perhaps, when 
the present political divisions of the world are utterly 
passed away, and the names of Washington and 
Lincoln are among the heroes of a vague past. 

But how to give an impression of its size ! If my 
readers will imagine a Sequoia placed beside Trinity 
Church, he must conceive it filling up one of our 
largest dwelling-houses — say a diameter of thirty feet, 
with a circumference of ninety feet ; the bark of this 

* At least this is tmo of tlie Calayeras grovo. 



90 THE NEW WEST. 

gigantic trunk will be light, porous, and reddish in 
color, with many scars upon it of fire (its great 
enemy) ; then, perhaps, at the height of the Trinity 
belfry (say one hundred feet), two opposing huge 
branches will protrude, it may be, themselves, of the 
size of large trees (say eight feet in diameter) ; these 
will be twisted and much broken ; above them will 
come forth other heavy branches, which show the 
marks and blows of the storms of a thousand years or 
more, for the giant, so far above his fellows, meets 
a continual battering from the gales of the moun- 
tains. 

There is no symmetry in his top, or delicacy and 
grace in his outline ; he has battled and struggled 
with the storm for too many centuries to preserve an 
artistic appearance. He looks the giant of the forest, 
broad-rooted and strong-limbed, rough and w^eather- 
beaten, but defying snow and frost and hurricane for 
thousands of years, and still sheltering bird and beast 
and cattle beneath his grand shadow. 

His leaf is much like the leaf of our cedar, and the 
cone is a small, insignificant burr, hardly two inches 
long. As we follow up the top, we shall find the grad- 
ually-diminishing stem and broken branches reaching 
toward the blue vault neaily a hundred feet higher 
than the Trinity spire.* 

As I have said, fire is the great enemy of the 
Sequoia. The dry summers leave the vegetation 
exposed to conflagration, and there is no doubt that 
the Indians, at an early period, through carelessness 

♦ The " Key stone " tree ia Cj,laveras is three hundred and twenty-live feet high. 



AGE OF THE TREES. 91 

or design, burnt off whole districts, which have 
never recovered their former shrubbery. The Se- 
quoittj from its dry, light bark, catches like tinder. 
It is rare to see a tree untouched by fire. It may 
be that it has thus been especially diminished since 
man first appeared on the Pacific coast. It seems 
seldom to die of old age ; and one eminent botanist, 
of a most careful habit of mind, tells me that he has 
seen one, which, in his judgment, is over three thou- 
sand years old. The one in Calaveras, whose rings 
I counted, was apparently about one thousand eight 
hundred years old, but I am assured an exact count 
gives only about one thousand three hundred and 
seventy. As Mr. Clark philosophically says, ^^why 
should it not be in the nature of one tree to live three 
thousand years as much as of another to live thirty ? '' 
The chance, however, of destructive elements assailing 
the life of any one being increases with time, and 
the ^^ struggle for existence " must be greater. 

We visited one big tree in Calaveras which had 
been blown over two years before. The enormous 
weight which each tree carries makes it more difficult 
to bear the gales, as it overtops the forest. Perhaps 
any ordinary wood, such as oak or maple, would in- 
crease the specific gravity, so that at three hundred 
feet high, the leverage on the roots would be too great 
to bear any strain of a gale ; but this wood is almost 
like cork — lighter than any wood on the Eastern coast. 
The fall of this mighty tower, they say, was heard 
for miles around, and made the earth tremble. Where 
it fell it has buried its top deep in the ground, so 



92 THE NEW WEST 

that there is quite a ravine made bj the blow in the 
earth. You strike the trunk where it is still a large 
tree, and then walk upon it some two hundred feet 
toward the roots. When you reach the roots you are 
upon a height equal to the roof of a moderate sized 
house, and a fall from the trunk vfould be dangerous. 
You descend by a ladder. 

If I recollect rightly, there were three hundred and 
sixty-five trees in this Mariposa Grove. I measured 
one trunk, broken off at the top, where it was a foot 
in diameter, which was about two hundred and ninety 
feet in length, and estimating thirty feet as the length 
of the part broken off, it must have been some three 
hundred and twenty feet high. We lunched near a 
" camp ^^ of the Geological Survey, in *the heart of 
the grove, lying on our backs beneath the gigantic 
canopies, and feeling like pigmies at the feet of these 
giants. The younger trees were often wreathed with 
a strange, yellow, hanging moss. Our ladies were 
deeply interested in a remarkable flower which grew 
beneath the snow, a few patches of which still re- 
mained here in June. It was a blood-red flower of 
a fleshy-like substance, like the Pyrola, or ^^ Dutch- 
man's pipe," growing somewhat like a garden hya- 
cinth. Its stems were clustered, from six to ten inches 
high, with long erect scales, broader below and gradu- 
ally narrower, and finally becoming bracts. The flowers 
were numerous, and occupied the upper half of the 
stem. It is the Sarcodes sanguinea. 

We gathered some, but its wonderful red color could 
not be preserved, as it turns black. Great efforts were 



CALAVERAS GROVE. 93 

made, too, to carry off some of the grand cones of 
the sugar-pines. 

The Sequoia belongs to the same family with the 
Red Wood {Sequoia se^npervirens), of which superb 
trees are seen all along the coast below San Fran- 
cisco — some over two hundred feet high, and perfect 
in symmetry. This wood is red like a cedar, and 
harder than that of the big trees ; when polished, it 
has a handsome grain, and is a remarkably enduring 
wood for fences or posts. I have seen good fencing 
of it eighteen years old. 

The Sequoia gigantea is found as a fossil tree in 
Greenland: it will probably grow in any part of 
the northern and western States. 

The Mariposa Grove seems to me hardly equal to 
the Calaveras, as the latter, though containing fewer 
trees, has finer specimens, taller and better preserved. 
Then, in the latter, a little house, used as a ball-room, 
built on the savv^ed-ofF stem of one tree, gives one a 
most impressive idea of their size. Here, however, we 
all rode some distance through the hollow trunk of a 
fallen tree ! North of the Calaveras grove is still 
another of several hundred trees which I did not visit. 
The Calaveras grove is made ridiculous by a name 
being put on each tree, in a little sign. The " Old 
Maid '' tree has her age most nearly ascertained, say 
1370, and her diameter was thirty -live feet, before the 
bark was removed. It took three men twenty-five 
days to cut it down, by boring the trunk with 
augers. 

The ^^ Mother of the Forest '^ was stripped of her 



94 THE NEW WEST. 

bark for some hundred and sixteen feet by means of 
scaffolding ; portions of it were sent afterward to the 
great London Exhibition ; the circumference was 
78 feet, and the height 327. The ^'Key Stone '^ ia 
the highest — 325 feet. 

I have spoken before of the wonderful vegetation 
of these mountains, and the Foot-Hills. How often 
have we stopped to gaze at the red, flesh-like arms and 
limbs of the Mansanita — (this remarkable shrub has 
a wood, when polished, more brilliant than maho- 
gany) — or we have rested admiringly under the im- 
mense Pitch-pine (P. ponderosa)^ reaching above us 
some two hundred and fifty feet, with a diameter of ten 
or twelve feet, its bark a bright cinnamon in color, and 
in large plates, some three feet long and twenty inches 
Avide. Of the Sugar-pine (P. Lamhertiana) I have 
already spoken. Besides these, in these mountains, 
are the Spruce (Abies Douglasil) and many varieties 
of oak, among them the Live Oak (Q. Crassipocida) 
and the Yew (Taxus hrevifolia). The chaparral, with 
which we made such disagreeable acquaintance, is 
geneially a thcrny, impervious shrubbery, made up 
of the Chinquapin (Castanopsis Chrijstophylla)^ and 
the Chamiso (Adcnostema fasicuJata), 



CHAPTER VIIL 

THE YOSEMITE CAi^ON. 

The distance from Clark's Ranch — the last stop- 
ping place on the Mariposa route to the Yosemite — 
is about twenty-five miles, right through the Sierras. 
This is the dreaded day of the excursion for the ladies, 
and such gentlemen as are not used to horseback. 
So there is careful arrangement of saddles and stir- 
rups, blankets are strapped over the saddles for some 
of the ladies (a device for comfort which should never 
be neglected), and the advance is made in the fresh 
morning, with not quite the spirit of the first day. 
But soon the romance of the scene and the mode of 
journey, enliven all. We form a considerable train 
of various costumes, and wind through the silent for- 
ests and over the elastic pine needles and cony trails, 
and up the heavy slopes of mountains, in a most pic- 
turesque procession. The wicked pack-mule at first 
leads, as we are assured this is the only way to mol- 
lify her, but she soon makes a perverse plunge into a 
chaparral thicket, and we leave her to have a brisk, 
stirring canter in this most delicious atmosphere, on a 
fortunately level forest-glade — the guide afterwards 
bringing her up. 



98 THE NEW WEST. 

No liorses I have ever seen can compare, in ease of 
gait, with these California mustangs. They are 
trained early to a long, easy canter, and on a good 
road, they will ^' lope ^' along sixty miles a day, with a 
motion like rocking in a cradle. They feed on oat- 
straw, or mountain pasture, and bear the hardest 
usage with little damage. The Spanish saddle is used, 
with high peaks before and behind, which is a great 
rest for a long ride. It is not kept on with buckle 
and strap like ours, but tied with horse-hair bands 
which fasten through tv/o opposing rings, and thus 
can be strained to exactly the right degree. The stir- 
rups are covered with huge leathers which fall five or 
six inches below the feet, and the legs are protected 
by broad leathern shields. 

When night conies, on these trips, you have only 
to tether your horse in a mountain pasture, or turn 
him adrift to feed with the other horses. He gets 
little other care. 

Every Californian rides from his earliest years. 
You will see the smallest youngsters '^loping" along 
with out-stretched arms and loose bridle, on the wildest- 
looking native horses. A pedestrian is a rare sight in 
the country. Horses are cheap, and the roads are only 
suited for riding. I have been constantly reminded, 
in this habit, of Hungarian peculiarities. May this 
healthy custom tell as favorably on Californian as it 
does on Hungarian physique. 

Our party, I have not mentioned, were made up of 
a Southern family — most charming specimens of the 
best-bred Southern people, and a married couple from 



THE MUSTAXGS. 97 

Philadelphia, who went into this thing as one of the 
duties of life. The Southerner, Colonel N., who had 
been familiar with Horses all his life, had been favored 
with a steed, which, we were privately assured, had 
been the terror of the country around. ^^ He'll kill 
him, sure," said a guide of another party to me, con- 
fidentially. '•^ He's kicked one hostler to death, and 
nobody can't go near him in the stable. He bites like 
mad, too. The last party he was out in, he nearly 
killed one gen'leman ! It's an imposition to send him ! " 
I asked how they tried to break him % ^^ Why, sir, 
they first chained him up sxidi flogged him tvitJi a cart- 
whip , but it wasn't of no use, he jist bucked whenever 
you got on him, and bit like anything." When Colonel 
N. heard this, he said, '^ D — n them ! I see they have 
just spoiled a good horse with their infernal treat- 
ment. He's just the horse I like." So after that we 
watched the Colonel and his horse with profound ad- 
miration, inwardly congratulating ourselves that we 
hadn't been served with him. But the Colonel was 
right ; under the hand of an intelligent master he was 
a splendid animal. The Colonel approached him as 
he would, in conversation, a sensitive friend, knowing 
all his weak points, and respecting his good qualities. 
He, in return, soon came to know a genuine horseman, 
and never bit, or kicked, or ^^ bucked '^ on the journey ; 
on the contrary, once when he was mired he seemed to 
know here was some real occasion for his mettle, and 
behaved beautifully. Once the Colonel was thrown on 
a rocky ledge, within a few feet of a thousand-foot pre- 
cipice, but he never reproached or struck the animal ; 



98 THE NEW WEST. 

he admitted he himself was wrong — he was trying, 
owing to the nature of the ground, to dismount on the 
wrong side. My wife, who was a bold rider, had a 
perfect palfrey, ambling like a cradle, but never suf- 
fering Miss N., daughter of the Colonel, a very pretty 
young lady, who wore a white mask and looked like 
a ghost on horseback, to pass him. I had a dull, 
hard-trotting pied nag, and could do little with him. 
We found, on our journey that day, heavy masses of 
snow, though it vf as the middle of June. They gave 
us, however, but little trouble. Once, as we were 
galloping over a green little intervale among the snow- 
peaks, we were startled by a sudden rush of wild- 
looking Indian riders over our pathway. They were 
all armed, and were hunting deer. 

^' Difrsrers ! '^ said the ffuide, and with ineffable 
contempt. " Poor devils — live on grasshoppers — 
huntin' for Hutchins, I s'pose ! ^' 

We took our lunch on the greensward, near a cold 
stream flowing from the ice, with the mighty snow- 
covered peaks of the far Sierras rising before us into 
the clear, blue vault. Again to saddle, and after a 
few miles, though in the thick forest, we know we are 
approaching the mighty Cailon. Our guide stopped 
us to prepare us. 

THE YOSEMITE CANOK. 

^^ Nowe there's no use talkin' !'^ (a favorite phrase of 
his.) * ' IVe takin a great many gents and ladies to that 
'ere pint we're a comin' to — Tnspirashin' Pint, they 



THE guide's picture. 99 

call it — and seed 'em jlst pop right over ! There was 
Mrs. Van Ardle, as strong a female as you ever see ; 
when I show'd her that, she jist caved right in ; and 
Mrs. Smith, the minit she peered over she gin oute. 
And I've seen gentlemen's hair stand right on 
eend ! " 

^^ But what causes them to faint f said some one. 

'^ I'm sure I don't know. But I dew know ye 
look right downe a sheer prespis, three-quarter of a 
mile deep, and across on t'other side, ye see a wall of 
rock a risin' amost a mile high ; and downe below ye 
see a purty green valley with a river in the middle 
on it, a windin' along aboute eight mile abovo, and 
aboute twenty waterfalls, jist like silver, a jumpin' 
over into it as if they couldn't stop — some on 'em fif- 
teen hundred foot high ] and all along up mountings 
and prcspisses, from a mile to half a mile high, as 
sheer as a wall, and sich purty colors on 'em, and all 
kinds of shadders. Thafs tvliafs the matter ! There's 
no use talkin' ! But we must be off ; there's that 
dam'd mule on the back trail agin ! " 

We rode on a little distance through the thick 
forest, then, on a word from the guide, fastened our 
horses to the trees, and made our way through the 
bush, with beating hearts, till we came out on the ledge 
of a precipice ; a few steps more and we were on a 
shelving rock, hanging over the gorge, ^^Inspiration 
Point ; " and, lying down, we were instructed to creep 
cautiously to the edge. There the whole mighty view 
opened upon us. There was ^^ no use talkin'," 
indeed ! 



;L00 the kew west. 

One could well understand women fainting before 
it, especially when exhausted by the long ride. The 
first sudden glimpse seemed almost to take one's 
breath away, or to make one giddy. No aspect of 
nature I have ever looked upon, no sight of the deso- 
late ocean, heaving and lashing in mighty surges 
beneath wintry storm, or sudden view of Alpine snow- 
peaks through rifts of black thunder clouds, or 
glimpses of Norwegian coast-glaciers through the 
lulls of an Arctic gale, or even Niagara itself, was so 
full of the inspiration of awe as this first opening 
view of the Yosemite Canon. All other scenes of 
grandeur and beauty must fade away in my memory 
when this vision is forgotten. Before the mighty 
powers which had shaped this tremendous gorge, and 
in presence of this scene of unspeakable and indes- 
cribable beauty and majesty, man and his works 
seemed to sink away to nothingness. I thought I 
knew the Yosemite well, through the remarkable pho- 
tographs of Watkins (the best specimens of this art 
ever exhibited), but the great peculiarity of this 
scene cannot be shown in them — its wonderful and ex- 
quisite color. I almost felt as if I had known nothing 
of the Canon before, so surprising were the effects 
of coloring and shadow. It must be remembered we 
had struck the gorge on one of its lateral walls, say 
about four miles from its western end. There is no 
approach to it from below, up the stream. As we lay 
on the edge of the cliff, we gazed up a narrow green 
valley, perfectly flat, from half a mile to a mile wide, 
and winding, some six mile^ above, between enormous 



THE EVENING VIEW. 101 

cliffs and precipices, a small, bright sparlding stream 
in the middle, fringed with green grass or forest 
trees. 

The wall, over the edge of which we were looking, 
was nearly three-quarters of a mile high, and far 
below, the oaks and willows and poplars and pines 
in the green intervale, looked like little shrubs. On 
the other side, a short distance beyond, was the grand 
bluff of El Capitan, a sheer precipice of nearly four 
thousand feet, its light granite purple, in the evening 
light, the most majestic cliff that human eye has 
looked upon ; beyond were other bluffs and precipices, 
pearly gray and purplish white, with green fringes 
below, and dark archways or fantastic figures traced 
by shadows on their surface. 

There were buttresses, as of gigantic Cathedrals, 
and archways such as might support hills of granite, 
and domes where a mountain was the substructure, 
and half domes, and peaks whose regular succession 
has given them the name of ^ ^ Brothers ^^ — all varying 
in color and shadow, incessantly, with the receding 
light J some Avith the delicious cool gray of the rock- 
color; some white, with a reddish shade ; others faint 
purple ; others resplendent in pink and brilliant 
purple ; while over their edges, giving a joyous life 
to the scene, rushed sparkUng silver streams, in 
innumerable waterfalls, dashing into the green valley 
below. 

We had been gazing at this scene of wonder a few 
moments in awe-struck silence, when our Philadel- 
phia party broke in with ; ^' Well, I suppose that's all, 



102 THE IS^EW WEST. 

we had better be going, now ! '^ The Yosemite had 
been done^ and we must be off! 

But Mr. S. was indignantly, though silently frowned 
down, and he and Mrs. S. went forward for the slow 
descent, leaving us to our contemplations. 

But the scene was changing. 

Over the valley, the heavy shadow of El Capitan 
continually increased its gigantic breadth of shade 5 
beyond him, the "' Arches,^' which, to be seen at that 
distance, must be a thousand feet in height, grew each 
instant more strongly marked, but still further beyond 
to the east, the North Dome and the Half Dome Avere 
golden and purple in the evening light ; and yet be- 
yond, the still white peaks of the Sierras towered 
above in the pale blue. 

On our side of the vast gorge, the foot of the vari- 
ous precipices and cliffs was covered with detritus, 
making, near the bottom, a considerable slope, on 
which grew many evergreen trees. 

On the other side there was one line of massive 
rock, which fell apparently plumb, without a break or 
curve, for nearly four thousand feet, and at its base, 
so hard was the material, there seemed no recent 
detritus at all. One could evidently touch the very- 
bottom of the immense fall of rock. 

The first glance at this wonderful Canon, with its 
rock-walls, and smooth, green, and wooded bottoms, 
showed that it was not a split in the heaped-up ranges 
of the Sierras. The opposite sides did not corres- 
pond. The Three Brothers have no kindred on the 
other wall of the gorge ; the Cathedral no correspond- 



ITS ORIGIIS'. 103 

ing giant Minster of granite ; nor El Capitan, a rival 
on the opposite side. The grand Half Dome not only 
has no matching half on the opposing mountain, but 
its own gigantic half-sphere must have utterly disap- 
peared beneath the debris of the valley. 

Nor could water have worn this immense gorge, 
some ten miles in length, through the hardest por- 
phyritic granite. Some of the grandest canons in 
California have, indeed, been worn through slates and 
shales by the slow action of running water. But here 
there are few traces of the effect of water, and a thou- 
sand centuries of flowing water would hardly affect, in 
the smallest degree, such an enormous pile of molten 
and hardened stone as El Capitan. 

The popular explanation of the formation of the 
Yosemite is that ^^ its bottom has fallen out.'^ That 
IS (in the view of the Geological Survey), under the 
slow action of volcanic forces for many centuries and 
'^ year-thousands," the molten masses of the Sierras 
were gradually thrown up, there were cracks and 
shrinkages in the cooling, and here and there immense 
masses swallowed up in the molten rock below, thus 
leaving enormous fissures or canons, whose sides 
could not correspond with one another. 

Our guide finally became impatient of our long- 
continued contemplation of the scene, and hurried us 
on our journey again. The descent was begun a little 
distance on, in a series of zig-zags through the loose 
soil of the sides of the gorge, in paths so steep that it 
seemed impossible to sit the horses ; some of us ac- 
cordingly, led our animals, but those who rode got on 



1)4 THE NEW WEST. 

perfectly secure, as the sure-footed creatures never 
stumbled once. 

At length, after a tedious scramble, we reached the 
hard ground under the forest trees along the stream^ 
Most of the party were too tired to canter, but none 
were too wearied to be deeply impressed by the won- 
derful scene around them. As we ambled slowly along 
on the greensward, or beneath the groves, the even- 
ing shadows were falling over the valleys, but above, 
in the dying light, the gigantic peaks arose in im- 
mense height over us, crushing us almost in the sense 
of their majesty. Each few steps the view of the 
various cliffs and projecting bulwarks of the grand 
canon changed, and there was a new exclamation of 
delight at some new effect of shadow, or some fresh 
and wonderful aspect of these imposing walls of rock. 
Now, as the gloaming passed, the full moon arose and 
lighted up the two enormous towers and colossal nave 
of the '^ Cathedral.^^ Then, as we rode on, that 
merged into the rocky mountain side again, and the 
Three Brothers clasped their granite hands together j 
then the low thunder of distant waters came to our 
ears, and the silvery fantastic light beamed on the ex- 
quisite Bridal Veil (a waterfall of a thousand feet), 
and soon revealed half the shining surface of the 
majestic Guardian of the Valley (El Capitan, or 
Tutucanula), while on the south side arose the 
enormous obelisk of ^^ Sentinel Eock ; " and still fur- 
ther on, the broad belt of yellow light was reflected 
on the white stream of the glorious Yosemite Falls, 
falHng near 1,500 feet over the mountain ridge. 



THE IN]S^. 105 

Fatigue and stiffness were forgotten in the magnifi- 
cent scene, until just opposite these last splendid falls ; 
the horses cantered into the open ground in front of a 
long, low log house — Hutchings', our destination in the 
valley, — and those who were too stiff to get down 
were lifted from their horses, and a good supper and 
bed rested the weary party. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE YOSEMITE — HUTCHINGS^ HOTEL. 

One of the jokes current in tlie Valley is to care- 
fully warn the traveler, before coming to this hotel, 
^^ not to leave his bed-room door unlocked, as there 
are thieves about ! " On retiring to his room for the 
night, he discovers to his amazement, that his door is 
a sheet, and his partition from the adjoining sleeping- 
chamber also a cotton cloth. The curtain-lectures 
and bed-room conversations conducted under these 
circumstances, it may be judged, are discreet. The 
house, however, is clean, and the table excellent ; and 
Hutchings himself, enough of a character alone to make 
up for innumerable deficiencies. He is one of the 
original pioneers of the Valley, and at the same time 
is a man of considerable literary abilities, and a poet. 
He has written a very creditable guide-book on the 
Canon. No one could have a finer appreciation of 
the points of beauty, and the most characteristic 
scenes of the Valley. He is a ^^ Guide '^ in the high- 
est sense, and loves the wonderful region which he 
shoT\^s yearly to strangers from every quarter of the 
world. But, unfortunately, he is also hotel-keeper, 
waiter, and cook — employments requiring a good 
deal of close, practical attention, as earthly life is ar- 
ranged. Thus we come do^vn, very hungry, to a deli- 
cious breakfast of fresh trout, venison, and great pans 
of garden strawberries 5 but, unfortunately, there are 
no knives and forks. A romantic young lady asks, in 



THE IJflN^ KEEPER. 107 

an unlucky moment, about tlie best point of view for 
the Nevada Fall. " Madam, there is but one ; you 
must get close to the Upper Fall, just above the mist 
of the lower, and there you will see a horizontal rain- 
bow beneath your feet, and the most exquisite — '^ 

Here a strong-minded lady, whose politeness is at 
an end, ^^ But here Hutchings, we have no knives and 
forks ! " ^^ Oh, beg a thousand pardons, madam ! '^ 
and he rushes off ; but meeting his wife on the way, 
she gives him coffee for the English party, and he 
forgets us entirely, and we get up good-naturedly 
and search out the implements ourselves. Again, 
from an amiable lady, ^ ^ Pleasr, Mr. Hutchings, an- 
other cup of coffee ! '^ ^^ Certainly, madam ! '^ When 
the English lady from Calcutta asks him about some 
wild flowers, he goes off in a botanical and poetical 
disquisition, and in his abstraction brings the other 
lady, with great eagerness, a glass of water. Some- 
times sugar is handed you instead of salt for the 
trout, or cold water is poured into your coffee ; but 
none of the ladies mind, for our landlord is as hand- 
some as he is obliging, and really full of information. 

^^]\rr. Hutchings, how do you like it here in the 
winter ! " 

^^ Madam, I always retire then to my country seat, 
on the sunny side of the Valley " (pointing to a little 
cabin on the other side, out of the eternal shadow of 
'the rocks.) ^^ I have it full of books, and I get a paper 
once in three months. At first, I used to think it 
quite romantic to watch the avalanches, but when a 
fresh one fell every half mile as I waded through the 



lOS THE NEW WEST. 

snow, I began to get enough of them. We have snow 
here ten feet deep, and I've slept in it like any bear 
sometimes, as I was backing my things in." 

'' Well, you are not much troubled with neighbors." 

^^ No ; I have only Leidig (his next neighbor), and 
the Diggers ; that's what I like about it." 

It was a very agreeable thing to us travelers that 
Mr. Hutchings had been able to lay out an excellent 
garden in the Valley. He brought in strawberries of 
several varieties, and most delicious flavor, by the pail 
full, and says that he has them all summer. The 
trout are a far inferior fish to our Eastern trout, and 
much less prettily marked. We saw the Indians 
catch them in the icy-cold stream which flowed by the 
door. The venison, too, seems not equal to ours, but 
it cannot be in full season yet. Mr. Hutchings is 
always ready for a philosophical remark. My wife 
had gone out and gathered some splendid wild flowers, 
and arranged them about the room. '^ There, gentle- 
men," said he, ^^ I have always said that the highest 
art was in producing beauty from the poorest materi- 
als.'^ 

There were several parties in the hotel. A San 
Francisco business party, who were doing the Valley, 
with the rapidity they sold ready-made clothes : then 
the English party from India — very pleasant people, 
and among them, an exceedingly pretty young lady, 
who was watched by us gentlemen with great admira- 
tion, as she was not only very pretty, but wore an ex- 
quisite long riding- dress, while our ladies were all in 
what must always be a hideous dress— bloomers or very 



THE ATMOSPHERE. 109 

short skirts. ^^ But wtiat will she do at the water- 
falls, and in the swamps ? " was the envious female 
whisper; but Ave, her admirers, were sure that an 
English woman woidd be practical; ^^ She will come 
out with just the thing at the right moment ! '^ 

Alas ! our ladies were right ; she had to drop her 
beautiful plumes, and go in her petticoats, and finally 
borrow from her critics. 

This party were just from the Himalayas, and said 
that these contained no pass so grand as this. 

From this hotel there are excursions enough to 
occupy one for weeks, among the beautiful scenes of 
the Valley. Each morning the guide saddles the 
horses — which had been turned loose in the mountain 
pasture — and fastens them in ft-ont of the house ; and 
after lunch has been packed, Ave set off in different 
directions, to see the famous points and objects. One 
of the most enjoyable features of the excursion is simply 
cantering up and down the valley, getting the ncAV 
aspects which open freshly every half-mile, and are 
different each hour of the day. The wonderful thing 
about the Cafion, which Avill hereafter draAV many an 
invalid here from distant lands, is its divine atmos- 
phere. To me, just recovering from a tedious fever, 
it seemed the very elixir of life — cool, clear, stimu- 
lating, and filled Avith light and glory from the smi of 
the South, Avliich here never seems in summer to have 
a cloud. The nights are cool, but midday would be 
too Avarm were it not for the delicious sea-breeze 
which, every day at eleven, blows in from the Golden 
Gate, a hundred and fifty miles away. The gorge 



110 THE NEW WEST. 

lies fortunately east and west, just about opposite 
to San Francisco, and about midway between tbe 
two flanks of the Sierras — here some seventy miles in 
width. Were it a north and south valley, even at its 
altitude (4,000 feet), it Avould be almost intolerable. 
Now nothing can surpass its mild, invigorating cli- 
mate, and harmonious and resplendent atmosphere. 
Life seems to have a new spring and hope under it. 
The charm of the Wonderful Valley is its cheerfulness 
and joy. Even the awe-inspiring grandeur and 
majesty of its features do not overwhelm the sense of 
its exquisite beauty, its wonderful delicacy, and 
color, and life, and joy. 

As I recall those rides in the fresh morning or the 
dreamy noon, that scene of unequaled grandeur 
and beauty is forever stamped on my memory, to re- 
main when all other scenes of earth have passed from 
remembrance — the pearly gray and purple preci- 
pices, awful in mass, far above one, with deep 
shadows on their rugged surfaces, dark lines of gigan- 
tic archways or fantastic images drawn clearly upon 
them, the bright white water dashing over the dis- 
tant gray tops seen against the dark blue of the 
unfathomable sky, the heavy shadows over the valley 
from the mighty peaks, the winding stream, and 
peaceful greensward with gay wild-flowers below, the 
snowy summits of the Sierras far away, the atmos- 
phere of glory illuminating all, and the eternal voice 
of many waters wherever you Avalk or rest ! This is 
the Yosemite in memory ! 



EUEOPEAl^ FALLS. Ill 

I have been thinking much of scenes in Norway, 
Tyrol, and Switzerland, with which to compare this. 
Switzerland, as a whole, is much superior in combina- 
tions and variety of features to the Sierra region. 
But there is no one scene in Switzerland, or the other 
parts of mountainous Europe, which can at all equal 
this Californian valley. The nearest approach to it 
is the Lauterbruennen Valley. It was my good for- 
tune to see that most grand and beautiful Swiss 
jDicture, in traveling on foot, by an unfrequented path 
from the Rhone, over the Gemmi pass, by Kander- 
steg, and then straight over the mountains, coming 
out on the high ridges above Muerren; a somewhat 
analogous position to that from which you first strike 
the Yosemite. The Swiss scene has the advantage in 
the superb glaciers which flow into the upper end of 
the Valley, but it is inferior in grandeur, and even 
in life, to the Californian. The latter having im 
mensely grander precipices, and, instead of one water- 
fall — the Staubbach — a dozen on a much greater 
scale. 

The form, too, of the Cafion, is unique, nothing 
in Europe resembling it : the immense vertical walls 
rising so abruptly from the green vale ! The peaks, 
too, which surround it, being original, even in the 
Sierras : the immense, inaccessible, concentric masses 
of granite — domes, or half domes, as if melted in 
some gigantic mould, and then, when cooled, left 
standing in the air. 

One of the grandest and most beautiful objects in 
the Valley was directly opposite our hotel, and its 



112 THE NEW WEST. 

music never ceased, day or night — the Yosemite 
Fall. The stream which bears this name, heads about 
ten miles away, and then flows down, almost 
directly over the mighty precipice, into the Valley 
below — a depth of 2,550 feet. At this time, it is about 
thirty-five feet wide, by two or three deep. The 
fall has almost the appearance of one grand shoot of 
water, but it has, in reality, three divisions : the first 
is a descent of fifteen hundred feet on a ledge (as it 
seems), though it is, in fact, a shelf of rock, a third of 
a mile broad; then follow a series of cascades for 
six hundred and twenty-five feet, and a final leap of 
four hundred. There is water enough now to give a 
bright, foaming, grand sweep of the whole cataract. 
It is certainly one of the most beautiful objects the 
human eye can ever gaze upon ! We never wearied 
of riding out over the green meadows and gay wild 
flowers, to get some new aspect of it. 

The only Fall to compare it Avith, that I have seen, 
is the Voring Foss, in Norway. This is a f^ll of nine 
hundred and fifty feet, but the water is so scanty that 
it is all resolved into wreaths of mist before it reaches 
the bottom 5 and it makes but little impression on the 
mind, compared with the Yosemite Fall. It is, more- 
over, confined in a narrow, dark gorge, and must be 
seen usually from above. In seeing the California 
Fall, I did not even think of the Norwegian. 

The amount of water, at this season, adds im- 
mensely to the cheerfulness and life of the Valley ; 
but it also occasioned us a good deal of trouble in 
getting around. We were mired several times, and 



THE STRlKIlSrG FEATURES. 113 

twice, one of our ladies was thrown on the soft 
greensward. 

But the scampering gallops through the groves, 
under these grand scenes, and the quiet amblings 
amid such beauty and sublimity, were pleasures which 
nothing marred. In our rides down the Canon, we 
were struck by the grand mass of the Sentinel Dome, 
4,150 feet above the Valley, and said to give the finest 
point of view in the whole region round j the valley 
itself, it must be remembeied, being over 4,000 feet 
above the sea level. Then three-quarters of a mile 
beyond, is the majestic buttress of the Sentinel Eock, 
3,000 feet high, of which a thousand feet is a smooth 
obeHsk ; opposite to this are the Three Brotheis, the 
highest 3,830 feet, and each regulaily lower than the 
next. 

Then comes the Cathedral Rock, 2,6G0 feet, with 
two perfect spires, the most picturesque object in the 
Valley; then the exquisite Pohono, or Bridal Veil, a 
flashing fall of a thousand feet swaying like a silveiy 
plume in the mountain breezes, and the grand feature 
of the Gorge, of which I have so often spoken. El 
Capitan, 3,600 feet. 

To the east of the hotel, about two miles above the 
Fall^, the Valley ends and divides into three Canons, 
each containing scenery as remarkable as those of the 
main gorge. The north-west Cafion is the Tenaya 
Foi k ; here we have the Half Dome, a majestic inac- 
cessible crest of concentric granite, 4,737 feet above the 
Valley, with a vertical face where the half sphere split 
oiF, of 2,000 feet in height j the North Dome, a rounded 



114 THE KEW WEST. 

mass, 3,558 feet, and easy to ascend from the north. 
In this fork is the exquisite Tisayac Lake, on which 
the morning reilections are so beautifully given. 

The middle Canon, that of the Merced River, is the 
most impoitant one of the three. No ravine scene ly 
in Europe equals this wild and extraordinary gorge. 
The river, which at this season has a tremendous 
body of water, descends through a wild ravine of 
two miles, 1,980 feet. The path winds along over 
a series of wild falls and rapids, till a cloud and gale 
of mist and wet cover it, through which we i each a diy 
place at the foot of a magnificent fall, 475 feet high — 
the Vernal. Then laddei s are ascended up the face of 
the cliff, and we rest on the dry, sunny ledge over the 
boiling and whirling cataract. Still another scramble 
for a mile, and we find ourselves blinded, gasping in 
the breath of the fui ious cataract above. We are all 
clad in India-rubber coats (furnished by a guide), and 
drip with water, and work up, inch by inch, stooping, 
as against a violent current. The gale takes away 
our breaths, and we have every now and then to catch 
a breath 5 there is nothing visible ahead but clouds of 
mist and driving swirls of lain, with a roar filling the 
air, which prevents all voices from being heard. We 
are helping the ladies on with the utmost difficulty, 
but at last all reluctantly give out and turn back ; but 
I cannot bear to give up the view, and after groping 
in the furious storm and mist, I at length find a side- 
path through the chaparral, and soon reach a dry 
ledge beneath the superb Nevada Fall — a majestic 
sweep of thundering water, 639 feet in height, more 



THE NEVADA FALL. 115 

grand than any water-fall in the Valley, because of the 
volume of water. There is a peculiar twist in the 
upper portion of it, which adds to its picturesque 
effect. On the other side, rises a most remarkable 
peak of granite, solitary and inaccessible — Mount Ero- 
de rick, some 2,000 feet. The scene, as I stood there 
alone beneath this sublime sweep of waters, and amid 
those mighty mountain-cliffs, can never be forgotten. 

The South Fork I did not visit, but the photographs 
show that it possesses scenery as romantic as the other 
branches of the Cailon. It is interesting to notice 
that these enormous water-falls in the Merced Canon 
have made scarcely an indentation on this most hard 
rock — a fact probably indicating that they have not 
existed a great length of time. The comparative ab- 
sence of detritus in the upper part of the main Valley, 
would seem to shoAv the action of water and ice, press- 
ing the debris into the lower portion where more of it 
is found. There are, too, (as was discovered by Mr. 
King), something which may be called lateral mor- 
aines, and perhaps a terminal moraine in the middle of 
the Cailon, so that it seems not improbable, though 
there is no absolute evidence, that in a comparatively 
recent period, glaciers existed in the upper part, and a 
lake in the body of theYosemite Cailon ; the descent 
of the whole Valley, it must be remembered, being 
only 50 feet during some eight miles. 

It is not my purpose to give a guide-book account 
of this unique valley, therefore, I have said nothing 
of great numbers of excursions which can be made 
from it, to points of such scenic interest, as nowhere 



116 THE NEW WEST. 

else exist in America. In future years, Avlien travel- 
ers frequent the Sierras, as they now do the Alps, 
this will be the central point for the most grand and 
exciting excursions on foot, and horseback. From 
here, the grand peak of Mount Hoffmann, 10,872 feet 
high, will be climbed, and Mount Dana, 13,227 feet; 
or going further South, the future Alpine clubman of 
the Sierras will follow the track of that most daring 
explorer, Clarence King, and attempt the ascent of 
Mount Whitney, a peak as difficult and nearly as high 
as Mount Blanc, or some 15,000 feet. There is one 
point in the Sierras, not very far from here, where ^ve 
mountains over 14,000 feet, and ffty ovev 13,000 feet 
high, are visible. From the Yosemite, too, excursions 
will be made to the Tuolumne Canon, also called Hetch- 
Hetcliyj a magnificent gorge only a little inferior to this, 
sixteen miles north, on the Tuolumne Eiver. It is 
about 3,900 feet above the sea-level, and like this, runs 
nearly east and west, but is only three miles long. The 
middle of the Cafion is cut in two by ^^ a low spur of 
shelving granite,^' dividing it into two portions, both 
of which are deliciously green, and apparently fertile, 
but very narrow ; the width varying from ten chains 
to three quarters of a mile. Here are granite preci- 
pices over 1 800 feet high, and different falls from 1,000 
to 1,700 feet in height, with an enormous volume of 
water in the spring. There are peaks also, and 
bluffs, corresponding to the Brothers and the Cathe- 
dral Rock of the Yosemite, the latter in the Tuolumne, 
being 2,270 feet above the valley. It has been sel- 
dom visited, except by Indians ; the Pah Utahs, and 



THE HETCH IIETCHY . 117 

the Big Creek tribes, disputing and fighting for its 
. possession. Its climate is said to be milder than that 
of the Yosemite, as is shown by the vegetation. 

Mr. Hoffman, of the Topographical Corps, State 
Geological survey, who visited it in 1867 (from 
whose report these facts are taken), states that it 
shows distinct evidences of glaciers ; that it must have 
been filled by one branch of an enormous glacier, forty 
miles long, heading near Mount Dana, and Mount 
Lyell. The rocks on its sides are polished with the 
ice, and an enormous moraine extends along the edge 
of the valley for several miles.* 

Mr. Hutchings, as I have said, is one of the pioneers 
of the valley, having entered it in 1855 under great 
hardships and difficulties, sometimes wading in snow 
up to his neck, and sleeping in winter in the forest. 
The valley was first discovered in 1851. It had been 
lioticed for some time that the Indians possessed a 
place of hiding which was unknown to the whites. 

* " The Valley can be readied easily from Big Oak Plat, by taking the regu- 
lar Tosemite trail by Spragues Eaneh and Big Flame, as far as Mr. Hardin's 
fence, between the south and middle fork of Tuolumne river, about 18 miles from 
Big Oak Flat. Here the trail turns off to the left, going to Wade's Meadows or 
Big Meadows, sometimes called Keservoir Meadows, the distance being about 
seven miles. From Wade's Ranch, the trail crosses the Middle fork of Tuo- 
lumne, and goes to the ' Hog Ranch ;' five miles thence up divides, between the 
Middle fork and Main river, about two miles to another little ranch, called ' The 
Caiion.' From here, the trail winds down through rocks for six miles to Tuo- 
lumne Canon. This trail is well blazed, and was made by Mr. Screech and 
others, for the purpose of di-iving sheep and cattle to the Valley ; the whole 
distance from Big Oak Flat being thirty-eight miles. 

Another trail, equally good, but a little longer, leaves the Tosemite trail about 
half a mile beyond the crossing of the South fork ; thence crosses the Middle fork 
within about one and one-half miles of the south fork crossing, and follows up 
the divide between the Middle fork and Main river, joining the first-named trail 
at the 'Hog Ranch.'" — Mr. Soffman's report, read by Prof. Whitney, to the 
State Geological Society of California, and quoted in the '^Evening Bulletin.^'' 



118 THE NEW WEST. 

After some uncommonlj bold robberies by the Indians, 
wlio escaped as usual, the tliieves were followed 
closely up by a Major Savage and others, and their 
wonderful hiding place — this celebrated Canon — was 
discovered. 

Mr. Hutchings squatted, or purchased of squat- 
ters on this, which was public land. He has 
made many improvements, built bridges and cleared 
paths, and laid out garden and farm, and in many 
ways made the valley, and the means of reaching it, 
known to the public. After this was done, the whole 
valley, together with the Mariposa grove of Big Trees, 
was transferred to the State by Congress, to be pre- 
served as a park and public ground forever, — a most 
wise provision, showing that enlightened consideration 
for the future which is a true token of high civiliza- 
tion 5 for in coming years there will be a current of 
travelers to this valley such as now pours into 
Switzerland and the Tyrol, and it is obviously im- 
proper that any one individual should have the power 
of controlling large portions of it, or of making it in 
any way inconvenient or disagreeable to travelers. 
It should be entirely free for the public. On the other 
hand, Mr. Hutchings' claims ought to be considered. 
The Commissioners of the Park, however, brought an 
action of ejectment, but during the winter of 1867 
and '68, Mr. H. succeeded in inducing the Legislature 
to pass an act giving him possession, in full, of a large 
tract in the Canon, provided Congress would consent. 
The Governor vetoed the bill, and it was again passed 
over the veto, though it afterwards failed to become 



THE DEPAETUEE. 119 

law through some neglect of the Clerk of the House. 
The proper course would evidently be to buy up Mr. 
Hutchings' claims at a reasonable rate^ and then leave 
the valley open to the public. 

It will not be many years before a railroad will con- 
nect Stockton and the Foot Hills — perhaps near Hor- 
nitas — and then a coach-road be made from Mariposa 
to some point near the walls of the Cafion. A hotel 
there in that delicious climate would be crowded in 
the summer months. 

We made our exit from the valley by the route to 
Black^s and Coulterville ; first working over a tedious 
ferry, six miles below, with a boat fastened to a rope 
stretched across the river and carried from bank to 
bank by the force of the current acting at a diagonal 
to the attachment on the opposite shore. The ascent 
v*^as most steep and difficult, a constant pull in zig- 
zag paths for the little horses during three hours, 
with frightful precipices occasionally at the side. 
Once we crossed a slippery rock over a stream where 
only five or six yards separated us from an aivful 
chasm. Yet no accident was ever known on the 
route. One point is of most imposing grandeur — the 
^^Stand-point of Silence '' — a spot to be remembered for 
various reasons by some of the party forever. There 
were occasional grand views, too, as we reached the 
height of the whole ridge ; but take it as a whole, it is 
not equal to the Mariposa route, and is far more diffi-* 
cult. Black's, too, seemed a poor little house. My ad- 
vice would be for most travelers both to come in and go 
out hj Mariposa. In this way they have but twenty- 



120 THE NEW WEST. 

four miles to ride m one day, while by tlie Coulter- 
ville route they must ride forty the first day to Black's 
Ranch, and twelve or fourteen the second to Coulter- 
ville. The views, too, the other way are very good, 
and luggage can be left at the last point, ^^ White and 
Hatch's " and fresh clothing thus obtained at once. 
From Mariposa and Bear Valley there is a regular 
stage connecting with Stockton ; or a very interesting 
trip can be made along the Foot Hills to the Calaveras 
Grove, as we shall describe in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE SOUTHERN MINING COUNTIES. 

What are called the Southern Mining Counties, in 
California, are those sending out their treasure by 
Stockton — Mariposa, Tuolumne, Calaveras and Ama- 
dor. They were once the great mining region of 
California. ]\Iy journey lay from Mariposa, along 
the Foot Hills to Calaveras. A singular appearance 
attracted the attention of our party at once on the 
Mariposa Hills. The slates which cover the ground 
here had been thrown almost on end by the volcanic 
upheaval of this region, and then eroded or broken, so 
that they stood in slightly inclined gray slabs, covered 
with moss, and had exactly the appearance of old 
grave-stones in countless numbers. We seemed to be 
journeying through the vast burial places of ancient 
nations. 

From Mariposa to Amador County, some 70 miles, 
one of the great quartz veins of California extends, 
where have been some of the most profitable quartz 
mines and placer-diggings. Near Coulterville it 
comes forth in a great mass of white quartz, called 
the Pefion Blanco (White Rock). In Mariposa there 
are few volcanic deposits, and therefore but little hy- 
draulic washings. The county is covered with the 
6 



122 THE NEW WEST. 

ruins of tlie unused buildings of quartz mills. Tlie 
number of these abortive attempts can hardly be im- 
ao-ined. [Nothing of importance was being done in 
quartz mining on the Mariposa Estate, owing to the 
internal difficulties of the Company. 

TUOLUMNE COUNTY. 

In this county are more of the Tertiary and Post- 
Tertiary and volcanic deposits, and, in consequence, 
more placer-diggings. 

Interesting remains of the early fauna of Califor- 
nia have been found here more than anywhere else in 
the State. The auriferous slates occupy a belt of 
some twenty-five miles in Avidth, but the country gen- 
erally is underlaid with granite, and volcanic deposits 
cover both granite and slates. A striking feature to 
the traveler's eye is the cropping out of the lime-stone 
belt. This vein was often the channel of the ancient 
rivers, which are now obliterated, and being worn by 
water into deep cavities, small ridges, or buttresses 
with a singular, corroded, and rounded form, are now 
left obtruding from the placer-diggings. Sometimes 
these curious ridges are cut with trap-dykes. 

It must be remembered that a great deal of the 
placer-mining of the State has been done in the beds 
of ancient rivers, which have now utterly passed away. 
These streams frequently run at right angles to the 
courses of the present rivers, showing how grand have 
been the changes of the surface of the country since 
these old rivers washed down the fragments of quartz 
and golden sands from the high Sierras. These lime- 



TABLE MOUI^TAIN. 123 

stone ridges acted, in those remote periods, as gigan- 
tic* ^^ riffles/^ to catch the gold whirled down the 
streams, and the miner now has some of his greatest 
^^ finds ^^ beneath them. 

In this limestone belt is a very curious cave, called 
" Bower Cave/^ which we visited, but which I will 
not stop here to describe. 

The great quartz vein cropped out again, near 
Jamestown. On one bank of the Stanislaus there was 
a singular appearance, as of coral reefs or cliffs. The 
people called it ^^lava," but it was an immense mass 
of calcareous tufa, formed over the auriferous gravel, 
and is said to contain interesting caverns. Here 
have been found valuable remains of the mastodon, 
elephant, and fossil horse. 

TABLE MOUNTAIN. 

One of the most interesting features of scenery on 
the journey, was a long mountain ridge, as level as an 
artificial terrace. I thought, at first, it must be an 
ancient river terrace ; it is, however, in fact, a river 
in the air — a vast, solidified stream of lava, whose 
banks have vanished. This remarkable feature is 
well known to miners as the ^^ Table Moimtain,^^ and 
is one of the most interesting evidences of the vast 
changes that have gone on upon the surface of the 
earth, that I ever remember to have seen. 

Countless ages ago, when the rhinoceros browsed 
on the forests of the Sierras, and the hippopotamus 
wallowed in the streams which now yield the golden 

* State Geological Survey. 



124 THE NEW WEST. 

gravel to the Yankee miner, and the camel (or an ani- 
mal allied to it) roamed over what are now the Foot 
Hills; a vast stream of lava was poured down from the 
mountains beyond the Big Trees of Calaveras, and 
flowed some forty miles, till it was solidified. It can 
be traced now on the north side of the Stanislaus 
River, at a height of more than 2,000 feet above the 
river. Below Abby's Ferry, the Stanislaus has 
broken through it, but it re-appears southwest of 
Columbia as a mountain, and continues some twenty 
miles from the river. There could not be a stream of 
lava 140 to 150 feet thick, and 1,700 feet wide (as it 
is in one point) without banks in which to flow. It 
must have run between mountains, and have followed 
the channel of some ancient river, as there are some 
200 feet of auriferous gravel-beds beneath it. When 
it was poured from its volcano there could have been 
no Stanislaus Valley, now 2,000 feet deep. A moun- 
tain must have filled that canon, and also Wood's 
Creek on the other side, as walls for this tremendous 
river of lava. But its banks being of slate have all 
been eroded and washed away, while on the hard, basal- 
tic lava, hundreds of thousands of years have hardly 
made a wrinkle or furrow. It stands level as if by 
art, more solid than a mountain, almost imtouched by 
time, while the surrounding country has been nearly 
washed away, and a furrow through it (and the slates) 
has been worn 2,000 feet deep by the slow action of 
a mountain torrent. 

Beneath this hoary monument of antiquity the 
modem miner has been very busy, and some of the 



EOMANCE OF MINING. . 125 

richest ^Hiauls " in California have been made here, 
yet it is estimated that $1,000,000 more have been 
put in the Table Mountain, than taken out.* 

If any of my readers have any lingering romance 
about a mining country, or the ^^ golden sands'' of 
California, they should travel through the ^^ Southern 
Mining Counties." Mining, at the best, is a sort of 
deviPs or ghoul's work, on a landscape. The curse 
of nature seems to follow it. Even fresh battle-fields 
are soon covered with grass, and flowers, and grain ; 
but no green thing grows where the miner hath been. 
The shining meadows, with the gay wild flowers of 
California, are dug up as if with fresh-made graves ; 
the rounded outline of the hills is broken with heaps 
of dirt ; green slopes are disfigured with unsightly piles 
of gravel and stones ; fields are covered with sand and 
pebbles, as if from an inundation j the clear mountain 
streams are muddy with dirt *, trees are overthrown, 
and vineyards and farm-houses undermined ; the 
whole landscape is a picture of roughness, waste, and 
desolation. 

But what shall I say of a deserted mining country, 
such as these counties ! For fifty miles, traveling 
through this scene of chaos, we saw but one white 
miner ; he stood, as pale as a corpse, in deep water, 
guiding listlessly a hydraulic pipe, and did not even 
look up as our party stoj)ped, in a carriage, close by 
him, to gaze at his work. Here and there a lonely 
Chinaman, in some river bottom, was pensively sha- 
king his rocker, gleaning what the Americans had 



■J. Eoss Browne. 



126 THE IS^EW WEST. 

abandonedj or two or three Avere quietly working some 
sluice in gold dirt, already sifted over and over again. 
The towns, rightly named ^^ camps," seemed almost 
abandoned. People had left them when the tide of 
fortune turned, as the hunter leaves his ^' camp " when 
game fails. The. long streets of gambling hells and 
drinking-saloons were almost empty. 

The saddest relics of the past were, here and there, 
the young men who had failed in mining and were 
broken down by drink, and now haunting the old dig- 
gings and the taverns for a chance job. They seemed, 
sometimes, men of education, and perhaps, of former 
wealth. 

What histories of tragic struggle with fortime and 
of defeat there are unwritten in California ! How 
many young men, for whom still fond hearts of sisters 
or mothers beat lovingly in vain, have fought the bat- 
tle of life here unsuccessfully, and have died, as men 
know how to die, in solitude and desertion, without a 
murmur or a groan. For in California, men who fail, 
are too proud to return to the East, or to ask sympa- 
thy or help. I know nothing more touching than, 
in these scenes of former greed and insane money- 
getting, to see occasionally a miner's grave. We can 
well imagine with what hope and courage that man 
had struck for fortune in these desolate places, where 
wealth sometimes came in a day ; how he had tried 
and tried again, each time with lessening hope and 
w^eaker power ; how the best years slipped away while 
he lost all that is worth having, for the sake of the 
gold that always became ashes as he reached it. At 



THE MINEE'S GKAVE. 127 

last, the weary labor endedj and with broken heart he 
is laid in an unknown grave, beside the gold-dust he 
had so vainly labored for. 

I hope I may not be thought too melancholy in my 
picture of an old mining country, but certainly, at this 
time, the California southern mining-counties have a 
funereal aspect. There is here a fine opportunity for 
a Ruskinian moralist. Gold-hunting, in the ground, 
seems to curse not only the unhappy seekers, but 
nature itself. And yet this is but a superficial view. 
Gold-mining, as it is now in some northern counties, 
under responsible persons or associations and proper 
management, does not differ from any other business 
in its moral effects. And even here. Nature is begin- 
ning to assert her " healing power." Near Columbia 
and other towns, green vineyards are covering the 
unsightly heaps of gravel and the volcanic deposits 
turned up by the insatiable gold-diggers ; the bowie- 
knife of the miner is turned into the pruning-hook, 
and the pick-ax to the hoe; the ancient gold-sluices, 
in which water was brought from distant mountains, 
are now used as irrigating canals, and the sands that 
furnished the gold, now give the sustenance needed 
for the grape. 

The receipts at San Francisco, from the southern 
mines, during the year 1867, were $4,477,462 ; in 
1866, $5,149,749, and in 1865, $6,426,260; in 1864, 
$6,858,153; in 1861, $9,863,214. The northern 
mines, during the year 1867, delivered $43,927,309. 
The former produce of the southern mines has reached, 
as we see, nearly $10^000,000 ; and the greater part 



128 THE NEW WEST. 

from placer-diggings. At the present time, there are 
probably not a hundred thousand dollars a year ob- 
tained from these ; nearly the whole product must be 
from quartz mining. 

COPPER MINING. 

The Foot Hills of Calaveras County are the seat of 
the copper mining of the State. We visited the mine 
at Copperopolis, the Union, one of the largest copper 
deposits in the world. The ore is not found in fissure 
veins, but in large independent masses, lying in the 
direction of the strike of the inclosing rocks, and dip- 
ping with them. The rocks are chloride and clay- 
slates,* passing into hornblende slate and hornblende 
rock. 

There was little doing in this rich mine when I was 
there. Expenses are probably too great to make the 
produce remunerative, especially with the large sup- 
ply in other countries. The shipments of copper from 
Cahfornia, in 18G3, were 5,933 tons, value, $512,925 ; 
in 1864, 14,315, value, $1,094,660; in the first six 
months of 1867, 3,444 tons, which did not pay expen- 
ses.t 

THE miner's law. 

As one passes through the mining districts, one 
hears continually of the '•' Miner's Local Law." It is 
a curious matter, and has interested me greatly. 
Here is an almost unwritten body of laws which has 
come down perhaps, in some of its features, from the 

* State Geological Survey. 

t Copper which sold in San Francisco at 14 cts. per lb. in 18G5, sold in 1867 
at 9 cents. 



129 

BritisK Celts before Caesar, or from the Iberians in 
Spain, constantly enlarged and adapted to new cir- 
cumstances, improved especially in Mexico and Spain, 
now remodeled by Yankee genius, and so founded on 
common sense and the principles of justice, as to be 
recognized by the State and United States Courts of 
this coast, and allowed by State Law and by Con- 
gress, where not directly opposed to previous legisla- 
tion. Some of our ambitious orators have claimed 
this unwritten law as especially an American inven- 
tion, but its origin is undoubtedly to be found in 
Spanish and J^fexican Mining Law, and in the customs 
and regulations of the local courts (or Stannaries) of 
the tin-miners of Devon and Cornwall, and the lead- 
workers of Derby. Its great principle. Gen. Halleck 
states to be, that the title to mining-property depends 
on discovery, and the continuance of title to the work- 
ing or development of it. 

Mr. G. Yale has written an admirable treatise on 
it, in a work called ^^ Legal Titles to Mining-Claims 
and Water-Rights in California.' ' * 

This body of laws relates to the public meetings of 
miners, and the forms to be followed ; the names and 
boundaries of claims ; the right of the discoverer to a 
double claim, and the limiting of the locator to only 
one claim, with many other matters relating thereto. 

Commissioner Browne, in his Report, so often 
quoted, estimates the number of mining-districts at 
500, and states that the mining-regulations will fill 
a thousand pages. 

* Homan & Co., San Francisco, 1867. 



130 THE NEW WEST. 

He thus describes them (pp. 226-7) : ^^ There are 
not less than five hundred mining districts in Califor- 
nia, two hundred in Nevada, and one hundred each in 
Arizona, Idaho, and Oregon, each with its set. of writ- 
ten regulations. The main objects of the regulations 
are to fix the boundaries of the district, the size of the 
claims, the manner in which claims shall be marked 
and recorded, the amount of work which must be done 
to secure the title, and the circumstances under which 
the claim is considered abandoned and open to occupa- 
tion by new claimants. The districts usually do not 
contain more than a hundred square miles, frequently 
not more than ten, and there are, in places, a dozen 
within a radius of ten miles. In lode-mining, the 
claims are usually two hundred feet long on the lode ; 
in placers, the size depends on the character of the 
diggings and the amount of labor necessary to open 
them. In hill-diggings, where the pay-dirt is reached 
by long tunnels, the claim is usually a hundred feet 
wide, and reaches to the middle of the hill. Neglect 
to work a placer claim for ten days, in the season 
when it can be worked, is ordinarily considered as an 
abandonment. The regulations in the different dis- 
tricts are so various, however, that it is impossible to 
reduce them to a few classes comprehending all their 
provisions. The States of Nevada and Oregon, and 
the Territories of Idaho and Arizona have each adop- 
ted statutes in regard to the size and tenure of mining- 
claims, and these statutes, so far as they conflict 
with the district regulations, probably supersede them, 
although the Act of the last session of Congress, to 



THE MINEE'S law. 131 

legalize the occupation of the mineral lands, provides 
for the issue of patents to only the holders of those 
lode-claims which are occupied and improved accord- 
ing to the local custom or rules of miners in the dis- 
trict where the same is located.'' 

Mr. Browne, however^ with many others, thinks that 
the existing local law is very imperfect and inade- 
quate, both to the wants of the present and future 
mining interest on this coast. Tliere is no uniformity 
in it. California has some five hundred districts, and 
the law at one point may vary from the law five miles 
away, while a peculiar ^^ custom'' of a district may 
supersede all law. 

'' Again, in one district the Avork required to be 
done to hold a claim is nominal j in another, exorbi- 
tant ; in another, abolished ; in another, adjourned 
from year to year. A stranger seeking to ascertain 
the law, is surprised to learn that there is no satis- 
factory public record to which he can refer, no public 
ofiicer to whom he may apply, who is under any bond 
or obligation to furnish him information, or guarantee 
its authenticity. Often, in the newer districts, he 
finds there is not the semblance of a code, but a simple 
resolution adopting the code of some other district, 
which may be a hundred miles distant. What guar- 
antee has he for investment of either capital or labor 
under such a system ? 

^' Again, under the present loose organization of dis- 
tricts, with their vagueness of boundary, it is often 
impossible to determine by which code of laws a loca- 
tion is governed. Cases of this kind have already 



132 THE l^EW WEST. 

arisen in several districts^ and are liable to do so 
again in any part of the State 5 and, under the pres- 
ent system, there is no means of guarding against it, 
except by an actual survey of the boundaries of every 
district — an incalculable expense.^' 

There is no permanency, either, in these regulations. 
A miners' meeting adopts one code, and then, a few 
weeks after, another is called together, and radically 
changes the previous proceedings. Neither is there 
protection to the miner nor encouragement to capital 
in them. 

The different sizes of claims in different States, and 
in different counties of the same State, is a source of 
great perplexity. Now, in Arizona, the claim may 
be 600 feet square, under statute ; in Oregon, 300 by 
150 feet; in Idaho, 200 by 100 feet; in Nevada 
County (Cal.), by miners' regulations, 100 feet ; in 
Tuolumne County, 150 by 150 feet; Sierra County, 
250 by 250 feet ; and so on. 

The great difhculty in the mining regions of the 
Pacific coast, as I have often said before, has been 
the uncertainty of mining titles. The miner has had no 
home and no permanent interest in the soil. He has 
merely Avasted the country, like a conqueror, and 
then retired to other regions to enjoy his gains. Mr. 
Browne estimates that since the mines have been 
opened, $900,000,000 have been taken from the 
ground, besides the immense production from agricul- 
ture, while the whole taxable property of the State, 
of which nearly one-half is land, is only $180,000,000 ; 
^ showing how little of the acquired wealth has remained 



THE MIlSriNG ACT. 133 

ill the State. As loni; ago as 1849, President Taylor, 
in his annual message wisely said that ^^a permanent 
right of property in soil was as important to the suc- 
cess of mining as of agricultural pursuits." 

Congress has finally recognized this simple principle 
by a legislation considered, in California, the most 
important ever framed for the interests of the mining 
population of this coast : it is the Act of July 26, 
1866, ^^ granting titles in fee " to miners. By this 
law, all mineral lands of the United States are de- 
clared free to explore and to occupy by all citizens, or 
those who have declared their intention to be citizens. 
The land of any claim must be occupied and 
improved, and not less than $1,000 be spent on it, in 
labor and improvements, to give a continuance of 
title. 

On May 20, 1862, no pre-emption laws existed in 
California. On May 30, 1862, these laws were ex- 
tended to California, not, however, embracing the 
mineral lands. But, by this act of 1866, all mineral 
lands reserved from the operation of the Homestead 
law and the Pre-emption law, where no valuable 
mines have been discovered, can be pre-empted in 
favor of parties in possession who have improved 
homesteads for agricultural purposes. They can 
prove possession, and pay the Grovernment price 
($1.25 per acre), or they can secure a patent for 160 
acres by a five years' residence, without payment. 

As Yale justly says, ^^ if lands for homes cannot be 
granted in mining regions without containing minerals, 
then they must be granted in small parcels, with min- 



134 THE ]S^EW W^ST. 

erals. The presence of minerals is not the fault of the 
miner (or owner), and a genero-is Government should 
not complain, on making a donation, that it is acci- 
dentally more valuable than the owner could help/^ 

(p. 381.)_ 

The miner thus becomes, by this Act, as much a 
free-holder and possessor of the soil^ as any farmer 
who has obtained a homestead on public lands. Hence- 
forth, he has a settled interest in the soil. He is no 
longer, by necessity, a rover and emigrant. He has 
a motive to build up, and beautify a home. He can 
have family ties, and family interests. A true foun- 
dation is thus laid for a settled society in the mining 
regions of the United States by this important legisla- 
tion. 

The second section of this Act enacts that the 
claim to a ^^ lode, or vein of rock, bearing gold, sil- 
ver,'^ etc., must have been worked and occupied ac- 
cording to ^Hocal customs of miners,'' and, also, that 
it is to extend ^^ laterally, or otherwise, so as to 
conform to the local laws." But, in section 4, it is 
provided that ^^ no location hereafter made shall ex- 
ceed 200 feet in length along the vein for each loca- 
tor, with an additional claim for discovery to the dis- 
coverer,'' etc., and that no one person may make 
more than one location on the same lode, and not 
more than 3,000 feet shall be taken in any one claim, 
by any association of persons." 

Mr. Browne urges very forcibly, that this recog- 
nizing "the local customs," leaves the size of claims 
in different States unequal, though reducing all to at 



CONFLICTING LEGISLATION. 135 

least 200 feet — moreover, any individual can have as 
much by purchase as he chooses, and thus Companies 
may have immense tracts without improving them. 
He accordingly advises an amendment of the Act, 
^' that no Company shall be permitted to possess a claim 
more than 2,000 feet in length." He thinks also, that 
in imitation of Mexican laws, each locator should be 
allowed to hold 500 feet. The width of claims, too, 
is subject to local customs, which are exceedingly 
various. ^^In Arizona, it is three hundred feet on 
each side of the middle of the lode ; in Oregon, it is 
twenty-five feet on each side of the lode ; in Idaho, it 
is a tract one hundred feet wide ; in Tuolumne 
County, California, it is one hundred and fifty feet on 
each side of the lode ; in Sierra County, California, it 
is two hundred and fifty feet wide on each side ; in the 
Copperopolis District, it is three hundred feet wide, 
in the State of Nevada, Nevada County, California, 
and in many other counties of California, it is all the 
land that is actually occupied by the works of the 
Company or miner.'' 

The work required to hold claims, varies exceed- 
ingly, in different districts. One hundred dollars 
worth of work in Idaho, gives perpetual title, Avhile 
fifty dollars annually, is required in Oregon ; one hun- 
dred dollars worth annually, in Nevada County ; and 
in Nevada, the payment of two cents per lineal foot, 
annually, gives a perpetual claim. 

The Law of Congress ought to settle this diversity, 
and to lay a permanent foundation, for centuries to 
come, for the mining interest. The various conflict- 



186 THE TTEW WEST. 

ing local customs and regulations could certainly be 
digested into a uniform^ practical, and impartial code, 
for all the mineral lands of the United States. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE DIGGER INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA — THEIR HABITS 
AND CUSTOMS — THE ANTEDILUVIAN INDIAN. 

On our recent journey we stopped for the night at 
a well-known ranch. Around the house were those 
magnificent and symmetrical trees of which I have so 
often spoken — the sugar pines^ reaching here a height 
of over 200 feet. 

Beneath one of these queenly trees^ as we rode in, 
was a little camp of ^'Digger Indians.'^ I examined 
them with interest, as, perhaps, the lowest tribe of 
the human race, and, it may be, the oldest. The 
men were small, short, pot-bellied, and small limbed, 
with complexions as dark as some tribes of negroes, 
cheek-bones high and prominent, the eyes far apart, 
with deep overhanging eyebrows, and masses of long, 
straight, ink-black hair growing low over the forehead. 
The frontal head was not low. The women were 
taller in proportion and better looking, sometimes 
with a deep, rich, coppery complexion. They were 
all disgustingly dirty, and with but little clothing on 
them — mostly pieces of the old clothing of the whites. 
At night I was awakened and disturbed by a long, 
wild cry, between a wail and a supplication, proceed- 
ing sometimes from their tent, and sometimes from the 



138 THE KEW WEST. 

forest near it. It was singularly wild and plaintive. 
I inquired in the morning what it was. '^ It was 
them cussed Injuns/^ I was told, ^^ yellin' 'cause a 
squaw's sick — goin' to die, I s'ppose ! " I went over 
to the tent and found a woman lying naked, under the 
furs of some wild animals outside the tent, and some 
other women muttering spells over her, and caring for 
her most tenderly 5 others, their faces blackened with 
pitch (as a sign of grief), were weeping bitterly. I felt 
her pulse ; she was in high fever and evidently suffer- 
ing much pain ; probably under a severe attack of 
rheumatic fever, to which these poor creatures are very 
subject, from their exposed life. Around her were 
conical baskets of willow or osier, made so close as to 
be filled with liquid, and dishes of the manzanita seed, 
and roasted acorns (their favorite food), with baskets 
of snails for frying. Other baskets in the tent con- 
tained pine-seed, from which they extract a nutritious 
food. Their favorite tidbits, later in the season, are 
roasted grasshoppers and fried crickets. Everything 
was dirty and miserable about their quarters, to the 
last degree. They seemed, as they truly are, among 
the lowest tribes of the human race, though the im- 
memorial aborigines of California. 

The travelers of the ranch spoke of their wailings 
over the sick woman as we would speak of the bowl- 
ings of dogs, but to me their grief seemed as full of 
human affection as it ever does among the refined and 
the intelligent. Evidently, they clung to the form 
of the dying woman as we cling to the forms of our 
beloved ones, and it was as hard to speak the last word 



THE DYIjN^G squaw. 139 

to the cold ear of the poor Indian squaw beneath the 
pine-tree shadow^ as it is for us beneath the curtained 
bed; and Death tore at their heart-strings just as 
it tears at ours. That nighty as the Avild, agonized 
wail, which was half a supplication, sounded through 
the forest, there seemed to me in it the same im- 
measurable depth which belongs everywhere to hu- 
man sorrow, and I thought that the ear which catches 
every human groan, and listens to the cry of the 
lowest, must have opened most tenderly of all to that 
wail of depressed agony, and to that inarticulate, ago- 
nizing prayer. 

The dead are nearly always burned by the Digger 
Indians ; and it is said that the name of the departed 
is never mentioned, and if it be casually spoken, a 
shudder passes over the bystanders. 

A close observer* of these tribes, after describing 
the death and the funeral ceremony of an Indian, 
says: '^During this scene, I observed the females, as 
they jumped about, pointing in several directions, and 
ejaculating something I did not understand. On in- 
quiry, I learned they were pointing toward places 
where they had been with the deceased in childhood 
— gathering food, feasting, or on some other occasions 
of pleasure — and they were crying, ' JSI'o more yon- 
der ! No more yonder I ' ^^ 

Again: ^^ During the whole time, from the death 
of the individual, there was one who gave utterance 
to his sorrow in loud and broken strains. * * * 
On one occasion, I observed him drawing marks in 

* A. Johnston. (Schoolcraft's Hist, of Indian Tribes. Vol. 4.) 



140 THE :n^ew west. 

the sand as lie spoke. He said, ^ We are like these 
lines ! to-day we are here and can be seen ; but death 
takes one away and then another, as the winds wipe 
out these lines in the sand, until all are gone ! ' and, 
drawing his hand over the marks, he continued, ' they 
are all gone even now — like them, we must all be 
wiped out, and will be seen no more ! ' ^^ '^ 

So far as I can gather from conversation and research, 
these Root Diggers, or Bonachs, had no religious be- 
lief before the arrival of the Spaniards. Their idea 
of a Great Spirit is undoubtedly a reflex of Christian 
teachings — as it is probably with most, if not all, of 
our Eastern tribes. The only tradition of the future 
life I have heard of among them, is that after death 
the spirits sail over a great water in a canoe, and with 
the bad, the bottom drops out, and they are drowned, 

* Compare tlie rites of our ancestors, tlie Aryans, in India, as pictured 
by Max Mueller. 

"Depart thou, depart thou by the ancient paths to the place Tvhither our 
fathers have departed. Meet with the ancient ones;t meet with the Lord of 
Death ; obtain thy desires in heaven. Throwing off thy imperfections, go to thy 
home. Become united with a body ; clothe thyself in a shining form . Go ye ; 
depart ye; hasten ye from hence. "J The responses might then fitly come in: "Let 
him depart to those for whom flow the rivers of nectar. Let him depart to those 
who through meditation, have obtained the victory ; who , by fixing their thoughts 
on the unseen, have gone to heaven. . . . ]jet him depart to the mighty in 
battle, to the heroes who have laid down their lives for others, to those who have 
bestowed their goods on the poor."§ 

Eeturning to the direct form of address : ' ' May sweet breezes blow upon thee. 
May the water-shedding angels bear thee upward, cooling thee with their swift 
motion through the air. and sprinkling thee with dew. May thy soul go to its 
own and hasten to the fathers." The service might fitly conclude with a chorus 
from the Veda : " Bear him ; carry him ; let him with, all his faculties complete, 
go to the world of the righteous. Crossing the dark valley which spreadeth 
boundless around him, let the unborn soul ascend to heaven. . . . Wash the 
feet of him who is stained with sin, let him go upward with cleansed feet. 
Crossing the gloom, gazing with wonder in many directions, let the unborn soul 
go up to heaven " 

f The Pitrs. I Rig Veda, x. 14. \ x. 154. 



RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 141 

wliile the good go to a land of plenty, where they 
drink and gamble for ages of ages. This is, without 
doubt, a modern notion. 

It is remarkable that this — one of the loAvest tribes 
on earth — has a wide-spread tradition of its derivation 
from animals. 

They believe that the coyote (the wolf) is their fore- 
father.* At first, when the coyote died, the body be- 
came full of little animals or spirits, which took vari- 
ous shapes, some of deer, or elk, or antelope. But 
most took wings and flew away. The old coyotes 
feared that the earth would become depopulated by 
such a continual flight, and had the body burned. 
After this the body began to assume the shape of 
man, at first very imperfectly ; first walking on all 
fours, then acquiring one finger, then a toe, an eye, 
then two fingers, two eyes, and so on, until the perfect 
man was formed. After a while, this creature got 
into the habit of sitting, and wore off his tail, which is 
still a matter of much grief to the Bonacks, as they 
consider the tail quite an ornament, and often decorate 
themselves with one, at their dances and festivities. t 

All branches of the Aztec race are said by Brinton 
to worship the dog. The Nahuas had a temple for it, 
and a congregation of priests devoted to its service, 
and elaborate statues and a tomb were erected to its 
memory. 

Many of the Athabascan tribes and the West Eski- 
mos believe in their descent from a dog ; and the 

* Johnston. (Hist, of Indian tribes.) t Johnston. 



142 THE NEW WEST. 

Trukuways of Texas * celebrate their connection 
with a wolf by a grand annual dance, all dressed in 
wolf-skins. Whether the Digger myth is simply a 
recalling of the universal symbol (a dog) of the Water- 
Groddess — the moon, or whether it is founded on 
their respect for wolfish qualities, or on some vague 
tradition of animal descent, we have no means of de- 
ciding. 

Some tribes of Digger Indians have been known 
to sacrifice their widows on the funeral pyres of their 
husbands. Nearly all testimony agrees that they 
have no religious belief. The languages of the tribes 
of the Sacramento river (the Cushna) and of the 
Castanos, whom I suppose to be Bonacks, have no 
words for God, devil, or angel. The Cushna has 
none likewise for scalp, or for the different seasons, or 
for sail, or boat. The Castanos count to tens and then 
by tens ; they have no word for war-club. 

The Digger Indians are diminishing continually — 
through the usual causes which destroy savage races 
in contact with civilized, from the excessive use 
of alcoholic drinks, and from the diseases of the 
whites. 

There are laws, strictly enforced, making it a penal 
offense, punishable with fine and imprisonment, to sell 
liquor to Indians ; they still succeed, however, in 
procuring some. They, and their related branches, 
are the only tribes in America who never had any 
agriculture. Their only stores for winter were pine 
seeds, acorns, and grass seeds. This miserable diet 

* Brintou's " Mjths of tho New vrorld," p. 221. 



THEIR DEGRADATIOjS^. 143 

has caused their poor physique, though it does not 
seem to have diminished their vitahty, as they were 
remarkably long-lived when the whites arrived. 
They seldom use a gun, but have bows of great elas- 
ticity and strength. In winter their dwellings are 
conical frames of wood, covered with earth, with an 
aperture for the escape of the smoke, and one in the 
side for entrance. A few have wooden cabins, like 
the miners. According to those who have studied 
their habits closely, they are polygamists, though on 
account of their poverty it is rare to see a man with 
more than one wife. There is no marriage ceremony ; 
and the wife can leave the husband for good cause, 
but while with him, she is considered his property. 
They burn their dead, as I have said, and the women 
put on mourning by smearing the face, shoulders, and 
breast with black pitch. They are said to have a 
clear code of their own of right and wrong. 

Mr. Waite, speaking of the Diggers of Nevada 
County, says : 

^'Tlie Indian of this region has many points of resemblance with 
his Eastern brother. The same arrow-head, the same council house, 
where the chief receives his friends, the same taciturnity and gravity, 
the same medicine man, the same respect for dreamers or prophets, 
and the same improvidence belong to the race. But he differs widely 
in other respects. The Nevada Indian is not migratory ; he prac- 
tices no torture on his enemies ; the rite of adoption of v/ives and chil- 
dren of enemies is not known, but all are killed indiscriminately; 
chiefs are not hereditary or selected for prowess, but are chosen for 
other qualities — principally, it would seem, for ability to entertain or 
reward their friends. There is no regular chief to the tribe at pre- 
sent. Like all barbarous races, the Indian is addicted to games of 
chance, and like the Eastern Indians they tattoo themselves, but 
unlike them, they do not scalp their enemies." 



144 THE NEW WEST. 

As our party were riding recently through the 
forest in Mariposa County^ we suddenly heard a 
strange yelling, and found ourselves right in the midst 
of an encampment of these Indians. It was beautifully 
chosen, on an open grassy knoll, in the midst of the 
thick trees, with a clear delicious spring on one side. 
A chief, far above the usual appearance of the Dig- 
gers, came forward to meet us. He looked like the 
best of our Eastern Indians, hale and strongly made, 
with an aquiline nose, dark copper complexion, and 
well shaped head, and the usual long, black hair low 
on the forehead. He was said to be a great hunter, 
and had a rifle in his hand. The others were sitting 
or lying on the ground, evidently having no covering 
for the night. They were short, weakl}^, miserable 
looking creatures, except some of the women, who 
appeared to have a better physique. These last were 
only half clad, and had long pendulous breasts. They 
all seemed exceedingly harmless, good natured crea- 
tures, and took the jokes of some of the party in the 
liveliest way. 

Colonel N. created immense amusement by offering 
a silver quarter for a kiss, which was accepted, to his 
dismay, by a hideous looking squaw. He stooped 
from his horse, and dropping the silver instead of the 
kiss, immediately spurred his horse, and rode away in 
the forest, amid their shouts of laughter. 

These all had Manzanita apples and acorns, for stores, 
and pine-seeds to make bread with. Their baskets 
were some two feet long, conical, and woven so close 
that they carry water in them. The women sling one 



THEIE FOOD. 145 

over the shoulder, and with a little scoop, sweep the 
seed of the high grass into the basket. Some of them 
had for a head-dress a round bowl-shaped basket, in- 
terwoven with the red feathers of the wood-pecker and 
the blue of the crested quail. 

Their favorite food, grasshoppers, is caught by 
digging a long ditch and making a fire in it : the grass- 
hoppers are then driven in large quantities into it, and 
are afterward gathered in a crisped condition, by the 
basketful. Old trappers say they are as good as shrimps 
for the table. 

I have never seen anything which can be called a 
cabin for them. Their wigwams in summer are mere 
arbors of leaves and a few branches. They have, 
however, as before mentioned, a Council Hut, and a 
'' Sweat House. '^ In this latter, any one who is sick 
or tired is placed, and the hut is heated by fires to the 
highest endurable degree ; and then the patient, after 
a tremendous perspiration, is taken out and plunged 
into a stream of cold water. This is the water-cure 
with a vengeance. 

The Root Diggers, or Bonacks, are the lowest 
branch of a low race — the Shoshonees — the Indians 
who held the liocky Mountains and all the salt deserts 
and barren mountain chains from the sources of the 
Missouri, through the Utah basin, the Sierras, and 
south to New Mexico and Texas. They are probably 
a degraded branch of the leading Indian race on this 
continent — the Aztec* — who reached a considerable 

* For the connection between the Shoshonees and Aztec, see J C Ed. Bisch- 
mann, ueber die Spuren d:r Azte\\ Spr. im Nord-Mex.et al. Berlin, 1859. He 
makes the Bonacks, or Panasht, a branch of the Comanche-Shoshonee family, 
and thus a probable member of the great Sonora or Aztec family. 



146 THE NEW WEST. 

civilization. This family is divided into two branches, 
the Nahaas and ToUecs. The former considered 
themselves as coming from the north-west coast, trav- 
eling south until they reached Mexico. Traces of 
the Aztec language are found from Nicaragua to Van- 
couver's Island. 

The Bonacks were probably originally driven from 
the prairies to their barren mountain and plateau re- 
gion, and as game was scarce and difficult to secure? 
they gradually sank in the scale of being, and became 
root-diggers, not only not attaining the dignity of culti- 
vators of the soil, but not even being hunters, except 
in one branch — the Comanches. These, since the 
arrival of the whites, in some way received, or stole, the 
great benefit of the Jiorse, and at once rose above their 
mountain brethren. In fact, whenever a horse-using 
tribe comes in competition, in the ^^ struggle for exist- 
ence," with a tribe of footmen, it must inevitably force 
them oiit of their hunting-grounds. 

The Comanches, though as morally degraded as the 
Bonacks, became most fierce and energetic warriors? 
and far superior to the people from which language 
shows them to have sprung. Some of the branches of 
the Shoshonees, in Oregon, on the salmon streams, again, 
seem superior to the mountain tribes, owing probably 
to their fish diet, and the social organization which 
springs from fishery. The Eoot Diggers of Califor- 
nia, bringing with them the long inherited listlessness, 
want of inventiveness, ignorance, weak physique, and 
habits of low diet and degradation of the Shoshonees of 
the great Salt Basin, and entering a country where game 



THEIR LOW COIS^DITIOIS-. 147 

is not very plentiful^ have fallen still lower than their 
low ancestors, and become one of the most degraded 
tribes of man on earth ; having no monuments or tumuli 
or mounds, no art or architecture or painting, no pottery 
or image making, *t or ornaments (except the very 
rudest), no war -club, or battle-axe, or tomahawk* 
^^ without," says a faithful authority, '•^ a single method 
of recording thought or action, without idols, sacrifices, 
prayers or priest," with no temple, and so far as is 
known, no religious belief. 

And yet the average volume of the Shoshonee 
brain is not small, being 8 1 cubic inches, while the ave- 
rage among all the barbarous North American Indian 
tribes is only 83^ to 84, and of the Mexican 79, and the 
Peruvian 754 Even our New York tribes, the Iro- 
quois, can boast only of 8 8 J. 

The Shoshonee facial angle average is 76^. 

The singular superiority in volume to the Peruvian 
is in the cerebellum, in the animal propensities, the 
frontal region being much smaller. The Peruvian 
reached a considerable civilization, and was easily 
conquered. The Comanche is a savage, but will 
probably never be subdued ; he will perish first. 

THE ANTEDILUVIAN INDIAN. 

The Digger Indian has been to me an object of pe- 
culiar interest, because there seems strong reason for 
believing him one of the oldest tribes on the earth, 

* A. Johnston. 

t A rude wooden image has been found once on this coast, but is not regarded 
as an idol. The Bonacks have stone knives and darts of obsidian. 
X Morton. 



148 THE NEW WEST. 

that has remained for immemorial ages in just its 
present condition of barbarism. 

It is well known to geologists and to miners that at 
a period, as measured by historical records, immensely 
remote, the Sierras were the scene of a wide-extended 
volcanic action and disturbance. Vast streams of lava 
were poured forth from burning volcanoes, often in 
valleys whose mountain- sides are now quite obliterated 
and worn away. The slopes of the Sierras are covered 
now with these volcanic deposits. Since they were 
poured forth, new mountains have been formed, the 
ancient rivers have been filled up or turned from their 
courses, and the enormous canons of these American 
Alps have been worn away by the slow action of the 
new rivers. One can form thus a feeble estimate of 
the time which must have elapsed since that period of 
eruption and disturbance. 

And yet, even in the vastly ancient period preceding 
this — in the Pliocene of California — there is reason to 
believe that man existed (at the same time with the rhi- 
noceros, the camel, or a species allied to it, and the fos- 
sil horse), in an antiquity far beyond that of the flint- 
makers of Abbeville and Amiens, and outreaching all 
human estimates of time. 

The facts are these : 

A human skull was found in a shaft sunk on a min- 
ing claim at Altaville, near Angelo, Calaveras county, 
Cal., by a Mr. James Matson. Mr. Matson states 
that it was found at a depth of about 130 feet, in a bed 
of gravel five feet in thickness, above which are four 
beds of consolidated volcanic ash, locally known as 



THE FOSSIL SKULL. 149 

" lava." These volcanic beds are separated from each 
other by layers of gravel, described thus : 

1. Black lava 40 feet 

2. Gravel 3 feet 

3. Light lava 30 feet 

4. Gravel 5 feet 

5. Light lava 15 feet 

6. Gravel 25 feet 

7. Dark bro^vn lava 9 feet 

8 . Gravel 5 feet 

9. Red lava 4 feet 

10. Red gravel 17 feet 

Total 153 feet 

The skull was found in bed No. 8, just above the 
lower stratum of lava. It was covered, and partly 
mcrusted with stony matter. The portions preserved 
are the frontal bone, the nasal bone, the superior max- 
illary bone of the right side, the malar bones, a part 
of the temporal bone of the left side, with the mastoid 
process, and zygomatic process, and the whole of the 
orbits of both eyes. 

The base of the skull is imbedded in a mass of bone- 
breccia and small pebbles of volcanic rock, incrusted 
with a thin layer of carbonate of lime. It is now de - 
posited in the office of the State Geological Survey. 
To the most superficial eye it has a remarkable re- 
semblance to the skull of the Digger Indian *, the same 
rather elevated frontal region and yet large cerebellum, 
making the animal organs prominent, though showing 
no marked deficiency in the intellectual process j the 



150 THE NEW WEST. 

facial angle fair, tlie same width between tlie eyes and 
overhanging process over them 5 and the same re- 
markable Avidth between the parietal bones, in the 
transverse diameter of the skull, a similar height of 
the cheek bones, with large and square orbits and 
wide nasal orifice. The most remarkable feature of 
the skull was the great thickness of its bone-covering 5 
otherwise it was by no means a low or degenerated 
type. 

The facts in regard to the discovery of the skull, 
stated above, were given in a paper, by Prof. J. D. 
Whitney, read before the California Academy of 
Sciences. He states, however, that he purposes visit- 
ing the locality itself, and seeing the exact place in 
which this interesting relic was discovered. I visited 
the neighborhood, but learned that the shaft was 
still full of water, and therefore could not be ex- 
amined . 

Subsequently the skull Avas examined by Dr. Wy- 
man, and on ^^ clearing away the mass of calcareous 
tufa which filled the cavity of the zygomatic arch, 
there were taken out two metatarsal bones, the lower 
end of a left fibula, part of the ulna, the end of a 
sternum bone, (all, perhaps, of the same skeleton,) 
also a fragment of a human tibia, too small for this 
skeleton, and a shell of HcUx mormonensisP 

The gravel was cleared away from the skull, and 
the lower jaw isolated and cleaned. The skull had 
been fractured by violence, with the loss of the left 
frontal and posterior portion. The teeth and alveolar 
process showed it to belong to an old person, but it 



THE ANTEDILUVIAlSr IIS^DIAN. 151 

was uncertain whether the skull was long or broad. 
(Sill. Journal, Sept. 1868.) 

The teeth of the Mastodon have been found in the 
same deposit. 

As a confirmation of the truth of this discovery, 
Dr. C. F. Winslow writes to the Journal of Science, 
(Nov., 1868), that he sent to the Boston Society of 
Natural History, in October, 1857, a fragment of a 
human skull found 180 feet below the surface of the 
Table Mountain, in the volcanic deposit. Few facts 
then having been ascertained in regard to human an- 
tiquity, the discovery attracted no attention. 

Even if this skull, by some accident, should have 
been dropped into these deposits, (which is exceed- 
ingly improbable,) it belongs without doubt, then, to 
another ancient period — the Post Pliocene, just suc- 
ceeding the volcanic epoch — in whose remains many 
human implements, such as stone mortars, and flint 
arrow heads, have been found, though thus far, no hu- 
man bones. At that remote period, the mastodon and 
the elephant wandered through the forests of the 
Sierras, and the tapir, tlie buffalo, and the horse 
abounded in the valleys. There seem no distinct flint, 
bone, and stone ages in CaHfornia among the ancient 
inhabitants. Flint and stone are found together, and 
I believe no bone implements. It would thus ap- 
pear that, countless ages since, the prototypes, and 
probably the ancestors of the Digger Indians, plucked 
the seeds, and hunted the small animals, of the Sier- 
ras. They seem even to have been superior to the 
present tribes, for these have no movable stone-mor- 



152 THE ]S-EW WEST. 

tars, but grind their seeds in natural cavities of the 
rocks. This skull, if different, is probably superior to 
the skull of the average modern Indian of California. 
For centuries beyond reckoning, this low and de- 
graded tribe has lived in a state of unchanging bar- 
barism, suited to its surroundings, and therefore con- 
tinuing to exist. There is nothing in this opposed to 
the Darwinian hypothesis,* as is assumed by some. 
The fossil Indians have not ''developed,'^ because it 
was not necessary in their '^struggle for existence.^' 
Their low types, like those of the Lingula and Tere- 
hratulinaj were adapted to their circumstances through 
all periods of time. 

^ The Darwinian discovery (for though first promulgated by Dr. 
Wells, and contemporaneously hit upon by Mr. Wallace, its applica- 
tion and development are especially due to Mr. Darwin) of the law of 
Natural Selection is one of the great events in modern science, and 
constitutes, it seems to me, a step in the mental progress of the race. 
The influence of this discovery is felt now in every branch of scien. 
tific investigation, and though it may not be a perfect Hypothesis 
of Origin, it will at least explain the source and mode of formation 
of vast numbers of the forms of life. Its application to the Human 
Races, and its demonstration of their Unity and immense Antiquity, 
seem almost irrefutable. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA AND THE PROPOSED 
UNIVERSITY. 

The more any one traverses this State^ the more 
he will be compelled to say, that far more important 
than the workers in the mines, on the farms, in the 
vineyards, or the orange groves, are the moral work- 
ers — the men laying the moral foundations of society. 
Even in a material point of view, this is true. Cali- 
fornia can spare any class of men sooner than those 
who are patiently and laboriously seeking to build up 
the education, the charities, and the religious interests 
of the State. The great obstacle to the progress of 
the Pacific Coast, which— if the marvelous natural 
resources of these States be estimated — has made their 
development far slower, relatively, than that of our 
Northwestern States, has always been the want of 
permanency in the population. People came to make 
money, and then returned to the Eastern Coast. No 
one thought of enjoying his wealth here. There was 
little sense of home among the Americans in Califor- 
nia. To this day they talk of the older States as 
^^ home/' or as ^^the States,^' while this region is 
" California,'^ as if it were outside of their country. 
Never was there a new community full of material 
prosperity, where so many emigrated. The wealth 



154 THE NEW WEST. 

poured forth from these golden sands flowed away 
to enrich other soils. Had California continued to in- 
crease as did our Central West^ or the Northwest^ she 
would now have had millions of inhabitants. And the 
reason of the exodus of her population, and the want 
of immigration, till now every branch of labor feels 
the evil, was simply the absence or insufficiency of 
the great moral agencies of society. There were few 
schools, few churches, no colleges here. Art and lit- 
erature ajid science could hardly live. Few cared for 
the things unseen and eternal. This was not the place 
for families, or for the education of children, or to pos- 
sess a refined home. Women, especially, disliked it. 
The tide was all toward sudden and material wealth. 
Men who had made money, could not enjoy it here, and 
men who sought to make it, preferred a community 
where the highest enjoyments and the noblest aspira- 
tions need not be entirely sacrificed to the pursuit of 
gain. So it naturally resulted that men who left, did 
not return, and new men, and especially families, did 
not enter the State at all in the proportion which might 
have been expected, considering the marvelous attrac- 
tions ofi'ered. And thus, under the retribution of a 
great moral law, was the prodigious development of 
the Golden State, which was everywhere reasonably 
predicted, fatally and sadly arrested. But during 
all these years of materialism, there were here, as 
everywhere under Christianity, patient and laborious 
moral workers plying their hard task, ^^ seeking not 
the things of their own," but those which belong to 
other generations, and a distant future 5 toiling for 



CALIFOF.^^IA COLLEGE. 155 

principles amid the undisguised contempt of a commu- 
nity who cared only for gold ; laying patiently the 
foundations of education, and morality, and religion, 
in a population which lived in a fever of gambling, 
speculation, and money-getting. No one who was not 
here in the early years of California history, can truly 
appreciate the heroic labors and patient toils of these 
^^ enthusiasts for humanity,'^ who were despised and 
neglected then, but whose labors, now just bearing 
fruit in various quarters, are seen to be wprth more, 
even to the material interests of California, than all 
her gold mines. 

THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE. 

Many of my readers will remember that years ago, 
when Rev. Dr. Bushnell was here, he, in company 
with Eev. Dr. Willey, Prof. Durant, and others, 
labored for the establishment of a ^^ College of Califor- 
nia." Their efforts finally culminated in the founda- 
tion of a College under the Presidency of Dr. Willey, 
long known as a most unselfish worker for humanity 
and religion on this coast, with a small corps of well- 
trained and thoughtful Professors. 

The College is, as yet, an institution chiefly in em- 
bryo, but as a nucleus of the future intellectual life on 
the Pacific Coast, it is deeply interesting. It is fortu- 
nately planted in .Oakland, a sort of Brooklyn to San 
Francisco, but enjoying a much pleasanter climate 
than the capital, and which has become a kind of in- 
tellectual center in California. Here are the best 
private female schools in the State. Here is the 



156 THE NEW WEST. 

Deaf Dumb and Blind Asylum, under a Superinten- 
dent well known in New York, Mr. Wilkinson ; and 
here the College has a Preparatory Academy, built up 
by the energy of Kev. Mr. Brayton, containing over 
two hundred pupils from all parts of the Pacific Coast. 
Innumerable villas and pretty houses are built here, 
so that for society, and many of the advantages of 
education, this is one of the best points in California 
for a residence. The Trustees of the College hold 
themselves peculiarly happy in having early secured 
the assistance and labors of Mr. F. L. Olmsted, the 
well-known landscape gardener, in laying out their 
grounds. If his plan be carried out, the College 
grounds in Oakland will be one of the prettiest bits of 
artificial and natural landscape in California. The 
great misfortune, however, seems to be that, even yet, 
the wealth of San Francisco has not reached that 
stage of civilization in which such intangible and dis- 
tant benefits, as a college for learning, are liberally en- 
dowed, and the consequence is, the College is con- 
stantly forced to sell portions of its splendid estate to 
keep itself above water, thus consuming its material 
capital. The Trustees have the design, in their plans 
for future education, not to fall into the great error of 
the Eastern and European institutions of learning — 
the neglect of natural science — but to make that one 
of the leading branches taught. They feel the im- 
mense importance, even for a professional or business 
man, to understand the alphabet of science ; the pleas- 
ure it gives to his observation of nature, and the use 
it is to him in practical life. And nowhere is a 



THE UNIVERSITY. 157 

knowledge of natural science so much a necessity as 
on this coast, where the mineral interests are so vast, 
and where nature itself requires such new study and 
classification. If the future College of California can 
indeed be the center of all studies and collections 
bearing on the natural history of the Pacific Coast, it 
will be an invaluable institution ; but all that is, as yet, 
only in design. I was pleased to see that men of all 
sects and no sect, were upon the Board of Trustees, 
so as to make it a truly unsectarian College. 

A bill, however, (in 1868) has been presented 
to the State Legislature, which will probably merge 
the College into a larger Institution or University. 
The following is an analysis of the bill : 
^^It provides for a State College of Agriculture, a 
State College of Mechanic Arts, a State College of 
Mines, a State College of Civil Engineering, and such 
other Colleges of Arts as the Board of Regents may es- 
tablish. A State College of Letters, College of Medi- 
cine, Law, and other professional colleges. These 
are all to be grouped together, under the head of a 
State University. The foundations have been laid, in 
this proposed organic act, to furnish instruction in 
every branch of human knowledge, which, in the 
judgment of the most enlightened educators, has any 
practical value. It is a broad educational foundation, 
not only for the present, but for the future — for the 
time, not very remote, when the Pacific slope wiU 
have many millions of population, and when hundreds 
of youths will flock to this University for instruction, 
which, while it is ultimately as free as air^ shall be 
more precious than gold. 



158 THE NEW WEST. 

^^ The first in the order of establishment is the Agri- 
cultural College. But in consideration of the donation 
made to the State by the College of California^ the 
Board of Kegents are required to organize a College 
of Letters^ in connection with the University, as soon as 
practicable, and when this is done, the College of 
California will disincorporate, and after paying all 
debts, will turn over the remaining property to the 
University. 

^^ Provision is also made by which other colleges, 
now or hereafter established, may be affiliated with 
the University, so that students can be received from 
them, and upon examination, degrees conferred for 
proficiency in either general or special branches of 
learning. But colleges so affiliated may retain their 
own property, while the President of the University 
is to be a member ex-officio of the faculties of all such 
affiliated colleges. In this way, any college can have 
a relation to the University, while it is left to manage 
its own affairs, so far as its separate existence is con- 
cerned. Special provision is also made to bestow 
scholarships, free from ordinary charges, upon such 
scholars in the public schools of the State, as shall dis- 
tinguish themselves by study, and shall have passed 
the requisite examinations. In brief, the University 
is to open its doors as wide as possible to every 
youth who wants more education than the Common 
School can afford. It conducts him to any one, or all 
of the departments of practical science, as well as the 
helles lettreSj and invites him to make the most of the 
greatest advantages at the least possible cost. The 



THE UJSTIVEESITY. 159 

bill Is utterly free from the taint of a narrow provin- 
cialism. It is cosmopolitan, and just and liberal in all 
its provisions. The government of the University is 
to be by a Board of Eegents, which is to consist of 
twenty-two members, and to include the Governor of 
the State, Lieutenant-Governor, Speaker of the As- 
sembly, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
the President of the State Agricultural Society, and 
the President of the Mechanics' Institute of this city. 
Eight other members are to be nominated by the Gov- 
ernor, and eight additional honorary members are to 
be chosen by the appointed members. 

^^ The endov/ment proposed for the support of the 
University is the capital and interest accruing from 
the sale of seventy-two sections of land, heretofore 
granted to the State by Congress, and known as the 
^ Seminary Grant,' and from the sale of ten sections 
granted to the State for public buildings ; the avails 
and income from 150,000 acres of land, heretofore 
granted to the State for the benefit of ' Agriculture 
and the Mechanic Arts;' and all contributions here- 
after to be made by the State, or from the funds of 
private individuals. 

^'The donation which the College of California has 
already made, is now, in the opinion of good judges, 
equivalent to $100,000; and the property, which the 
College proposes to turn over at a future day, may 
be set down at $50,000. It is expected that the 
State will match this donation, which is, thus far, the 
largest ever made for education on the Pacific coast, by 
an appropriation of $100,000 to furnish the buildings 



160 THE NEW WEST. 

necessary to put the University in operation with as 
little delay as possible/' 

On a recent voyage of the Great JRepublic to Japan, 
Mr. Allan McLane took over a proposition to the 
Tycoon, from the Board of the College of California, 
to educate nine or ten young Japanese scholars in the 
English language and history, so as to promote a com- 
mercial and popular union between the two coun- 
tries. The students will be conveyed both ways, free 
of charge, by the Pacific Mail Company, and will be 
especially and gratuitously instructed in the College, 
and separate quarters will be furnished them, if de- 
sired. This idea originated with Mr. McLane, and 
bears the marks of his far-reaching and organizing 
brain. 

The results of an educated body of men growing 
up in Japan, and acquainted thoroughly Avith the 
American language and affairs, could hardly be 
measured in their eifects on the commercial interests 
of the country, or the progress of civilization and 
Christianity. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE FOOT HILLS — GOLD-MINING. 

It is a sad pity to see the beautiful rivers of Cali- 
fornia so spoiled by the gold-washings from above. 
The Sacramento is yellow with the sand from these 
works in the mountains, and the fine salmon which 
used to fill its streams, are being driven away each 
year. In a short time, unless efficient measures are 
taken to preserve the fish, the rivers of the State will 
be stripped of a most valuable product, as similar 
streams have been in New England. The sea-fish of 
San Francisco, however, are abundant, and of many 
new and remarkably fine varieties. 

The mining in the Foot Hills is producing another 
remarkable effect ; it is driving out the farmers from 
the river-bottoms to the elevated land. These ^' flats '' 
were always subject to periodical overflows, but, as the 
floods seldom reached beyond a weU-known limit, and 
as they deposited fertilizing sediment, the cultivators 
could adapt themselves to them, and found their ad- 
vantage in them. But since the enormous hydraulic 
washings in the Foot Hills, or the Sierras, this has all 
been changed, on account of the filling up of the 
mountain streams with gravel and soil. In many of 
these streams, whole hills have been ^^ sluiced" away, 
and have filled up the rivers from twenty to forty feet. 



162 THE KEW WEST. 

When the winter floods come, they pour down these 
channels, and carry the soil and gravel to the valley 
streams, filling them up to the brim, causing floods, 
and thus burying thousands of acres of most valuable 
land every year, under this sandy and pebbly deposit. 
I heard of one instance, in Yuba County, of an or- 
chard of seventy-five acres, worth from $50,000 to 
$75,000, thus completely destroyed; and of many 
similar cases of smaller vineyards and farms. 

The following, from the Alfa newspaper, will illus- 
trate this destructive action of man on nature : 

'' Marysville^once the best-built and neatest inland town of our State, 
with a flourishing commerce, has been retrograding for some years 
past, from changes incident to California. The best paying orchard 
of the State was Briggs'. This consisted of ninety acres of assorted 
fruit trees, on rich, sandy loam, kept moist by infiltration from the 
river. The fruit of this orchard was the earliest to reach the market, 
and, until prices fell to their present level, it paid well to send it to 
San Francisco, even at heavy cost of steamboat freight. What has be- 
come of this celebrated orchard, which was valued at ^200,000 ? It is 
now a willow copse ! Its trees, which were so beautiful and so fragrant 
in full flower of Spring time, and whose rich show of fruit, always 
heavy laden, was the greatest attraction on the highway, now gladden 
the eye no more, forever ! In its place stands a wilderness of rank 
willows, overtopping its former wealth of fruit trees, and blotting out 
the record of their history. 

"Dr. Teegarden's rich and beautiful orchard of forty acres,in near- 
er proximity to town, has shared the same fate, andBRiGGs' second 
orchard of 200 acres is fast following it. Nearly all that exceedingly 
fertile bottom-land that lined the banks of the Yuba for miles above, is 
also forever blotted out, and the work of devastation still advances 
along the bottoms of the Feather rivei-, below the confluence of the 
Yuba. In time not distant, the whole of those rich, dark-soiled bottom- 
lands will be one barren waste of sand. This sad change is but a type 
of the utter desolation that has already ruined the bottom-lands every- 
where along the streams that come from the gold mines. 



ETUIS' FROM GOLD WASHIlN-a. 163 

^' Every year,minions of tons of earth, grave],and sand are sent down 
the rivers that go from tlie mines toward the plains below. Every 
year there is added so much to the channels of deposition, that the beds 
of the streams are elevated, and their waters spread more and more 
over the alluvial bottom-lands, and bury them under barren sands be- 
yond redemption. 

'' Let it be understood that these rich lands count their acres by 
thousands upon thousands ; that they are smothered under from five 
to twenty feet of barren sand, and the eternity of their extinction from 
the wealth of the State will be comprehended. The Sacramento river, 
though further removed and broader in its base, is not less notably 
being uplifted, and year by year its ever-muddy waters are spreading 
over the flat and marshy lands on its borders. 

''The greater part of this destruction comes from what are called hy- 
draulic diggings. These are the richest lands for tillage in the un- 
dulant country of the gold ranges. They have a substratum of gravel 
which contains grains of native gold. To get a cheap separation of 
the gold from the gravel it is necessary to tear down the low elevations, 
varying from 500 to 200 feet, with the whole covering of rich top-soil, 
Avitli the gardens and orchards, houses and fences that are on them. 
The dry gold is found to be there, the farm is devoured, and in an in- 
credibly short time, the piping water-jets, under a pressure of 100 or 
200 feet, have torn away the gracefully swelling landscape of 200 or 
300 ornate acres, and left in its place a pond of dirty water, with a 
broad border of huge boulders of rock, with cobble stones and barren 
gravel — a picture of utter ruin. The devastation could not be more 
complete if it were the last day, and the demons of destruction had 
been let loose to desolate the earth, that not a green thing should grow 
on it thereafter, forever ! The price of this awful ruin is probably 
some ten or twelve millions of gold dollars per annum, the product of 
ti;is particular form of mining. It brings, for the present, a large equi- 
valent for the sacrifice of the fine vineyard and orchard land it ab- 
stracts from the food-producing capacity of the State. But in the end 
it may be regarded as a poor compensation. The gold passes away, 
while the land, with the wealthy homes it has ruined, would have 
endured from generation to generation." 

'^ GOLD RUN.'^ 

I had no idea till I stopped at this place^ what hy- 
draulic washing was, on a large scale. Here was a 



164 THE NEW WEST. 

valley, of whose dimensions I cannot be certain, but 
from half to three quarters of a mile long, by a quarter 
broad, and some 250 feet deep, scooped out entirely by 
the miners' hydraulic pipe. 

Two or three men stood at the base of a great wall 
of earth and rock, and with heavy waterpipes, sup- 
ported on wooden frames, but guided by the miner, 
they speedily undermined the mountain-side (much to 
their own risk) and sent it floating down their sluices 
into the valley below. The whole vast ravine thus 
hollowed out by the little human ants, was evidently 
the bed of an ancient river, filled with sand and peb- 
bles and petrified trunks, and here the modern miner 
gathers the washings of ancient streams long since 
passed away. 

The iron pipe through which this tremendous force 
was exerted, was 800 feet long, with only a 2-inch 
nozzle and a pressure of 206 feet. 

The debris was carried like a torrent through an 
alternate series of ^^ sluices, and ground-races, and 
falls" for miles below, crushing the dirt thoroughly. 
Even as I stood watching the work, the hill melted 
like snow under this mighty agency. 

The channel of one ancient river, well known to the 
miners as the ^^ Blue Lead,'^^ has been explored for at 
least twenty-five miles from Sebastopol, in the north- 
ern part of Sierra County, to Snow Point, in Nevada 
County^, and probably over this county also. It runs 
nearly at right angles to the present rivers, and its 
channel must have been filled by gradual and repeated 
overflows of lava, and changed by many volcanic up- 
heavals. 



PROFITS OF GOLD-MII^ING. 165 

GRASS VALLEY. 

Like many travelers, I have had serious doubts 
whether gold-mining, during the last ten years, had been 
a source of much real profit to California, except in 
attracting labor, and I have taken pains to inquire of 
all my acquaintances if they could point out persons 
to me who had made and hept fortunes from gold-min- 
ing. As a general thing, they have admitted that they 
themselves, and their intimate friends, have been ex- 
ceptions, but the almost universal reply is, ^^ There is 
Mr. Hay ward in the Eureka mine, and look at Grass 
Valley, if you want to see profits ! '' 

It is a fact that gold-mining in the Eureka mine, and 
in Grass Valley, and the northern counties, has passed 
through its adventurous and uncertain period, and is 
now carried on more like other branches of business. 
Its profits are not made from sudden and brilliant 
^^ finds, '^ but by reducing the expenses of working, 
and trusting to a regular and economical production. 
The Eureka mine, Grass Valley, is an instance. When 
this vein was first worked to a depth of about 34 feet 
below the surface, the yield of the quartz was from $6 
to $12 a ton, which did little more than pay expenses.* 
Below that level, the yield increased from $14 to 
$21 ; at 100 feet, it paid $28 ; at 200, about $37, and 
at 300 feet, the yield has been over $60 per ton. 

" During the four months which preceded the first of October, the 
mine produced 42,227f tons of quartz, which yielded $255,072.55, 
and the expenses of mining and milling were $67,320.83, leaving as 
profit, $177,751.72. The average yield of the quartz during the period 
was at the rate of $60.33 per ton. During the whole year the amount 
of quartz worked was ll,375f tons, which produced $526,431.41 at 

* J. Koss Browne's report for 1867-'68. 



166 THE NEW WEST. 

an expense of $168,389.23, leaving as profit for the whole year 
$368,042.19. The average yield per ton was $47.15, and the average 
cost of mining and milling was $13.75, leaving a profit of $33.40 per 
ton." (J. Ross Browne.) 

Mr. Hayward is said to have made liis enormous 
fortune by a common-sense management of liis mine, 
as he would manage any other business. 

His celebrated mine is at Sutter Creek ^ Amador 
County. Its average yield is not high : it has been 
worked since 1851^ though only during the last eight 
years attaining much importance. It has produced 
altogether about S6, 000,000. The yield per ton is only 
about $25. The vein at the depth of 1,200 feet is 
about 25 feet broad. It is the deepest mine in the State. 

The veins in Grass Valley are noted for their nar- 
rowness and the richness of the quartz. They are in- 
cased in a hard metamorphic rock, and the expenses 
of reduction are higher than elsewhere in California, 
amounting to from $15 to $26 per ton.* Within the 
last fourteen years, the total production from the Grass 
Valley district has not been far from $23,000,000.* 
Its annual yield now is about $3,500,000 ; 2,000 labor- 
ers being employed, and producing an average yield 
of some $1,750 : the average yield of the rock being 
from $30 to $35 per ton. 

A single vein, with an average width of 12 to 14 
inches, on Massachusetts and Gold Hill, has produced, 
during that time, more than $7,000,000 worth of gold. 

More experiments in different processes of extract- 
ing the gold have been made here than anywhere else 
in the State. 

* J. lloss Browne. 



CHEAPER MIjN^IlvrG. 167 



GOLD-MINING. 



It must not be supposed that there is any one dis- 
trict on the Pacific coast which is exckisivelj a min- 
ing region. From the borders of Mexico to Alaska, 
and from the waters of the Missouri to the Coast 
Eange, there are innumerable mining works in gold 
and silver, most of whose product comes out to 
the world by San Francisco — a yield said to be more 
than half the whole product of the world. 

There has no doubt been a large development to the 
mining interest in the last four years. Among the 
causes of this, has been the granting titles to mines by 
the Federal Government. Capital, of course, is more 
disposed to invest when a title to property is thus 
secured. Expenses, too, have diminished. Miners' 
wages now average $3 a day, while they used to be 
$4; mills charge 20 per cent, less for working, and 
guarantee 75 per cent, returns on the fire assay, where 
a year ago they w^ould only guarantee GO per cent. 
The cost of assaying and refining bullion has been re- 
duced within a year some 50 per cent.* No one not 
familiar with the business can imagine the extent of 
the losses through incompetent refining. 

^^ A striking illustration of the waste of bullion was 
recently presented in Virginia City, Nevada, where 
an assay office, which had done considerable business 
for a couple of years, was closed up for want of patrons, 
when parties who had watched the method of busi- 
ness of the firm obtained permission to test the dust 
in the furnace flue, and waste about the laboratory, t 

* t Cominercial and Mining Eeview. 



168 THE NEW WEST. 

and obtained S900 worth of bullion. The most sug- 
gestive fact connected with the transaction beings that 
while the bullion melted by the establishment never 
exceeded $2 per ounce in value, that collected from 
the flue was worth $2.50 per ounce j it had gained 
25 per cent, by the loss of the silver, which, it is well 
known, vaporizes at a lower temperature than gold.'^ 

It is estimated, too, that nearly 20 per cent, of the 
bullion received in San Francisco is derived now 
from the sulphurets and tailings, which, a few years 
ago, would have been thrown away. In one mine in 
Grass Valley, the past year, thousands of tons of old 
rubbish have been worked over, yielding an average 
of $15 per ton. It is said that, in over a dozen estab- 
lishments in the State, the yield from sulphurets, re- 
duced by chlorination or other process, is from $100 to 
$300 per ton. These formerly were considered of no 
value. 

The three great branches of mining, as is weU 
known, are, (1.) Quartz; (2.) Cement; (3.) Flacer 
Mining. Some of the quartz-mining is now at great 
depth, and the yield is still found profitable. These 
^' quartz-mines,^^ however, are not always in quartz. 
One profitable mine near Lincoln, Placer County, is 
said to be in a hill of silicate of magnesia. Eich aurif- 
erous sulphurets, too, are said to be found in slate, lime- 
stone, and cemented gravel, as well as quartz. Of 
quartz mills, there are reported to be nearly 400, with 
4,000 stamps, in California alone. Nevada County- 
was formerly the great quartz-mining county, but 
many other counties, such as El Dorado, Placer, Plu- 



GOOD LUCK. 169 

mas^ Yuba, &c., are now discovered to be equally rich. 
The names are often striking ; Poverty Ledge, Poor 
Man's Hill, Whiskey Diggings, Brandy City, Grizzly 
Flat, You Bet, etc. 

One stroke of good fortune in quartz mining, is re- 
lated by an authentic witness* this year ; — 

" A miner, named Johnson, discovered a ledge of 
decomposed quartz near Paulineville, Yuba county, in 
March, from which he obtained $10,000, with a rock- 
er, in a few hours, and $10,000 more from two 
hundred pounds of the rock which he carried to 
Marysville, and he has since sold his mine for a very 
handsome fortune. '^ 

The produce of the quartz mines, in 1868, was 
about $9,000,000. 

CEMENT MINING. 

'^ Cement " is a very tough clay, enclosing gravel 
and boulders. The gravel is not auriferous, but it 
must be crushed, so as to permit the crushing of the 
clay. All the power spent in crushing the stones is 
lost. One stamp will crush from 4 to 6 tons of cement 
per day. The pulverization is not so fine as of quartz. 

The particles of clay that escape are easily dissolved 
in water. The gold is caught in the battery, and that 
which escapes through the screen is caught in the 
sluice, t 

These hills of cement are very frequently covered 
with basalt or volcanic rock, showing that the cur- 
rents of lava often follow the beds of the streams, 

* Comm. lieview. 
t Browne's Eeport. 
8 



170 THE NEW WEST. 

and the gravel is thus protected from the denudation 
which lays bare the surrounding country. It is 
almost always assumed now among miners, that a tun- 
nel cut into a basalt-covered hill will reach the bed 
of an ancient river. * 

Nearly one-half of the gold found in the State is 
extracted from these beds of ancient rivers. 

It is said that there are several hundred miles of 
this cement in the State, ^^ ranging from one thousand 
feet to several miles wide, and from one hundred to 
one thousand feet deep, all of which is rich in gold.'^ 
On this hard material, water and the tremendous 
hydraulic process has no more effect than on granite. 
There are now nearly 100 mills t in the State, engaged 
in crushing cement, and yielding much more profit 
than the quartz mills. Placer, Nevada, and Yuba 
Counties are the centers of this branch. '^ 

^^1 The American mine at Manzanita Hill, North San 
Juan, Nevada County, for the past three years, has 
yielded a revenue of $105,000 annually, among its 
eight owners, who have ground enough in their claim, 
of the same character, to last for forty years, if work- 
ed at the saine rate as during the past three. Smarts- 
ville and Timbuctoo, in Yuba County, are famous for 
their cement claims. The cement here is less hard 
than in Nevada County, and is worked to a great ex- 
tent by the hydraulic process. The Blue Gravel 
claim at Smartsville is a specimen of the mines in 
Yuba. This claim contains upwards of one hundred 

* Browne's Report. 1 1 Comm. Eeview. 



CEMENT MIXIXG. 171 

acres, averaging one hundred feet from surface to 
bed rock. Upwards of $1,000,000 have been taken 
from it, though it was not opened till March, 1864. 
It occupied nine years of incessant labor and the ex- 
penditure of upwards of $100,000 to open it. It has 
four miles of sluices, three feet wide and three feet 
deep, in which three tons of quicksilver are distributed 
to catch the Gold. 125,000 pounds of gunpowder 
are annually expended in blowing up, and breaking the 
cement where it is too hard for the hydraulic to wash. 
The water used in washing costs $25,000 per annum. 
It is this heavy outlay in opening these claims that has 
been the great obstacle to their development. Capital- 
ists are now largely interested in this business. The 
second largest individual income in the State, during 
the last year, was obtained by Mr. J. P. Pierce, one of 
the owners in the Blue Gravel claim, who paid taxes on 
an income of $102,000. Several other parties inter- 
ested in the mines of Yuba paid taxes on incomes of 
from $12,000 to $60,000.'^ 

The yield from cement-mining or deep lying placers 
last year, was $14,000,000. 

PLACER-MINING. 

This form of mining is decreasing every year, while 
quartz-mining slowly increases. Most of the surface 
gold is now obtained by hydraulic mining. The yield 
in some claims, is as large as $100 per day to the hand, 
but it does not average more than $10 or $15. The 
river mining is now mainly done by Chinese, who 



172 THE NEW WEST. 

gleaii from the sands over and over again, after the 
whites have abandoned them. 

" The following is the produce of two successful placer-operations in 
the Live Oak and Nebraska mines, in Nevada County. These claims 
were located in 1852, and have been worked continuously ever since. 
Before the hydraulic process was introduced, $250,000 per annum 
were taken out by means of drifting on the bed rock, hoisting the dirt 
with a windlass, and washing it in sluices. From November, 1853, 
to June; 1860, the Nebraska Company extracted $353,000 ; since then 
upwards of $250,000 more have been obtained. The three claims in 
the vicinity have taken out $1,218,000. Four other companies ad- 
joining, on the same ''lead," have taken out upwards of $2,000,000, 
Other smaller companies, working over the same materials, have ob- 
tained upwards of another million of dollars, and all from less than 
4;000 feet, on a lead which is known to extend for ten or fifteen miles.'' 

As old fields are abandoned in placer-mining, new 
ones are found. It is the branch of mining least be- 
neficial to the country. Its produce last year was 
about $2,000,000. 

^GOLD MINING PROCESSES. 

The main processes of quartz-mining are well known. 
Crushing and amalgamation are the two great methods 
of reducing the ores. 

Most of the crushing is done with stamps. The stamp 
is usually a block of iron, weighing from 300 to 1500 
pounds, fastened to a wooden or iron shaft. A bat- 
tery consists of several stamps standing side by side. 

" * The stamps are successively lifted by machinery, and then al- 
lowed to fall on the quartz. The height to which they are raised is 
from ten to fifteen inches, and each stamp falls from forty to eighty 
times in a minute. It is calculated that each stamp should crush a 
ton of quartz of ordinary quality in twenty-four hours. The mills 

* J. Ross Browne. 



HITTING PROCESSES. 173 

usually run night and day. Of course the amount of quartz crushed 
depends to a considerable extent on the hardness of the rock, the 
weight of the stamp, height of the fall, and the rapidity of the blows. 
*' The fineness to which the rock must be pulverized depends on cir- 
cumstances. The particles of gold may be very fine, so that the quartz 
must be reduced to an impalpable powder before they can be liberated ; 
but if the particles of gold and the grain of the rock are coarse, or if 
the pulp is to go through a grinding-pan, the quartz may be allowed 
to escape when many of the particles are as coarse as sea-sand or even 
coarser. The battery has on one side a screen of wire-cloth or per- 
forated sheet iron, with apertures of the size of the largest particles 
that must be permitted to escape. A steady current of water runs 
through the battery, so as to carry away the quartz dust as soon as 
it is fine enough. The sheet-iron screens are punched with needles 
and are known by the numbers. No. 7 screen is punched with a 
cambric-needle. No. 3 with a darning-needle. In Grass Valley most 
of the mills use Nos. 3 and 4 screens ; elsewhere Nos. 4 and 5 and 8 are 
preferred." 

" AMALGAMATION OF GOLD." 

" Much of the gold is caught or amalgamated in the battery. The 
stamps fall into an iron box or mortar, into which an ounce of quick- 
silver is thrown for every ounce of gold supposed to be in the quartz. 
If the rock is crushed fine in the battery, two-thirds or three-fourths 
of all the gold saved may be caught there, leaving one-third or one- 
fourth that escapes through the screen. After leaving the battery, 
the pulverized quartz in most mills runs down over copper plate which 
has been washed over with diluted nitric acid, and then rubbed with 
quicksilver till the whole surface is covered with amalgam : and when 
the plate is covered with gold it operates far more effectually than 
when the quicksilver is fresh. Gold unites more readily with gold 
amalgam than with pure quicksilver. The copper plate, which is the 
bottom of a trough or sluice, may be fifty or a hundred feet long. 

'' Between the copper plates in many mills are troughs, in the bot- 
tom of which are laid coarse blankets, or gunny bag, or even cowhide 
with the hair on and the grain against the stream. Gold amalgam 
and sulphurets are caught in the rough surface of the blanket, gunny 
sack, or hide, which must be taken up and washed at intervals, which 
are usually not more than half an hour long. The shaking table used 
in amalgamation is a long box with transverse divisions containing 
quicksilver. It is set horizontally and is shaken longitudinally, re- 



174 THE NEV/ WEST. 

ceiving from ICO to 200 short jerks in a minute. By these jerks the 
pulp is thrown back upon the quicksilver. 

''Pans are coming into use slowly in the gold quartz mills — at least 
in some of the new ones lately erected in Grass Valley. Kustel says 
of pan amalgamation that it is ' at present the most perfect gold ma- 
nipulation/ and by it 'gold is extracted as close as ninety-five per 
cent, of the fire assay' — that is, if there are no sulphurets. (Nevada 
and California processes, page 63.) The general opinion is that from 
twenty to forty per cent, of the gold is lost in the ordinary processes." 



MINING TRICKS AND FAILURES. 

The extent to whicli both eastern and San Fran- 
ciscan investors have been deluded and cheated in 
California mines, could not be imagined by any one 
not familiar with the facts. Take this instance of 
^^ salting/' which I have from the scientific gentleman 
employed. An ardent mercantile man from Buffalo, 
New York, was visiting a mine in the Foot Hills, of- 
ferredfor sale cheap, and chanced to pickup some spec- 
imens of ore, scattered about. He had them assayed, 
and they showed a remarkable 2)roportion of gold. 
Not betraying the hidden treasure thus luckily found, 
he wxnt back to Buffalo, and informed his confiding 
friends. The demonstration was complete. Here was 
an average specimen of the ore j it yielded $100 a 
ton, and cost $25 to work; and they could take out 10 
tons a day — $5,000 in a week — the whole mine only 
costing $G0,000: ^4n twelve weeks you can clear 
your capital ! '^ The sixty thousand were speedily sub- 
scribed, and the mine was bought, the investors wait- 
ing eagerly for their golden ^^o^ to hatch. It chanced, 
however, that now the originator met my friend and 



*' salting" a mine. 175 

showed him his specimen ores. ** But these do not 
seem to belong to that formation ! '^ said my young 
savant. The speculator was frightened ; he engaged 
my friend for $500 to go right up and examine, and 
report. If he had reported favorably, he would un- 
doubtedly have received several thousand dollars from 
the stockholders. But he was obliged to inform the 
astounded Company that the mine was salted ! (L e. 
that those interesting and valuable specimens had been 
brought from some other quarter and dropped in\ and 
that it was not worth working. 

A gentleman interested, gave me another incident 
of a similar nature. Some commercial men in Lon- 
don became interested in the glowing accounts of a 
Californian, of a celebrated gold mine in the Sierras. 
His specimen ores were astonishingly rich, and the 
whole investment appeared a very promising one. 
Their information, however, was not sufficiently trust- 
worthy, and they held off. The Californian went to 
the Continent, leaving a telegraph address. In the 
mean time some of these gentlemen happened, at one 
of their places of daily resort, to meet another Amer- 
ican, also from California. They feU into a conversa- 
tion with him ; had he ever been in Nevada County ? 
Oh, yes, he had slept over every yard of it ! Did he 
ever hear of the Golconda mine ? Certainly j knew 
it well ! Well, what did he think of it ? The strang- 
er, as a man accustomed to judge, replied carefully 
with caution. — They pressed him. — He inquired the 
price set on it. ^^Two hundred thousand dollars." He 
shook his head distrustfully ; then described the mine, 



176 THE NEW WEST. 

and what he knew of its product. It was a fair mine, but 
not worth more than half that money. In fact, he knew 
that the company had received an offer of that amount 
and might at any moment sell it. They must work 
rapidly to secure it. The Englishmen resolved to try 
for it. They telegraphed to the Californian. He re- 
turned. They offered him $100,000, provided every- 
thing should appear all right on investigation. He 
would not secure the purchase to them without 
$10,000 down. So eager were they, that they were 
about paying him this amount, until their lawyer 
suggested that the title should be first investigated. 
An agent was accordingly sent to California, who 
went out to the mine. He not ojily discovered no 
title, ^^ but not even a claim or a digging,'^ and his 
employers escaped with a couple of thousands loss. 

^^ Scientific Keports ^' smell in the nostrils now of 
Californians. So many magnificent mines and rich 
veins are dished up annually in such splendid style on 
paper, which are never found to pay a penny to the 
investor, that a good report of a savant is about the 
last thing the knowing speculators look to. Scientific 
superintendents, too, are no better thought of. Skill 
and training in the East, they say, are no preparation 
for practical mining on this coast. I heard of one 
graduate of a mining school, who imported and carted 
up to his mine a new and improved piece of machin- 
ery, at a cost of some $20,000, and when it reached 
there, it was discovered to be too large for the shaft, 
so that to get it into the mine, the whole entrance 
must be enlar<:ed, at an expense of some $50,000. 



MINING MISTAKES. 177 

The result was, that the valuable machinery was left 
outside, and finally broken up for old iron. The 
amount of useless ^^ prospecting '^ done by Eastern 
engineers, at enormous expense, can only be meas- 
ured by the losses of "Wall street and Montgomery 
street in gold-mining stocks. Nor have the " prac- 
tical men '' of California done any better : as witness 
the large sums spent uselessly near the San Carlos 
mine, in mistaking chromic iron for silver ore, or in 
mining for tin south of Los Angiles, or digging 
for petroleum near Santa Barbara — though in this 
last blunder, science also must take its share of 
blame. 

I never yet met any business man in California 
who had not lost money in mining, and I heard of but 
very few fortunes which had been made and Tcept in 
this business. Still, gold and silver mining has built 
up this coast with towns and villages, and has served 
to develop an amazing agriculture in a country which 
otherwise would have been as little known or explored 
as Arizona. It has certainly ^^paid" to this region^ 
whether it has to the lenders of capital in the East or 
not. 

CaHfornia herself shows all the signs of prosperity. 
Wages are high, means of living not very expensive, 
and the interest on capital moderate. Individuals live 
in much comfort and abundance, and the working- 
classes are in better condition than anywhere else in 
the world. Before the last five years, this prosperity 
must have arisen largely from the profits in mining' 
Still, population has not increased rapidly, very many 



178 THE NEW WEST 

having returned who had failed in business; the wage- 
fund may have come largely in borrowed capital from 
the East^ and the high wages and high interest (which 
prevailed a few years since) may have partly de- 
pended on the gambUng expectation of profit j which 
gold-mining induces. No one can say what losses 
Eastern investors^ and disappointed and unlucky 
miners have incurred ; so that it is extremely difficult 
to decide how much it has cost to extract the nine 
hundred millions of dollars which are believed to have 
been taken from the mines of California since 1848. 
This enormous yield has affected the value of gold 
throughout the world^ and has been a great aid in our 
exchanges ; but what profit (if any) has accrued from 
it, over and above what would have arisen from the 
application of the same labor and capital to the wheat- 
fields of the Central West, is exceedingly difficult to 
estimate. 

The quantity obtained each year from surface-dig- 
gings in California is estimated at $2,000,000; from 
cement or deep-lying placers, $14,000,000; from 
quartz-mines, $9,000,000; total, $25,000,000. 

Mr. Browne, in his report for 1867, thus reckons 
the 

GOLD AND SILVER PRODUCT FOR 18G7. 

" From the best information available,tlie following is a near approxi- 
mntion to our total gold and silver product for the year ending Jan- 
uary 1, 1S67 : 

California $25,000,000 

Nevada 20,000,000 

Montana 12,000,000 



BULLION PEODUCT. 179 

Oregon $2,000,000 

Colorado 2,500,000 

New Mexico 500,000 

Arizona 500,000 

Add for bullion derived from unknoAvn sourc- 
es within our States and Territories, un- 
accounted for by Assessors and Express 
Companies, etc 5,000,000 

Total product of the United States $75,000,000 

PRODUCT OF THE PACIFIC STATES AND TERRITORIES. 

" The bullion product of Washington is estimated by the Surveyor- 
General at $1,500,000. That of Oregon is stated as high as $2,500,000. 
Intelligent residents of Idaho and Montana represent that the figures 
given in the above estimate, so far as these Territories are concerned, 
are entirely too low, and might be doubled without exceeding the 
truth. The product of Idaho alone, for this year, is said to be from 
$15,000,000 to $18,000,000. That of Montana is estimated by the 
Surveyor-General at $20,000,000. Similar exceptions are +.aken to the 
estimates of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. As I have no grounds 
for accepting those statements, beyond the assertion that most of the 
bullion is carried away in the pockets of the miners, I am inclined to 
rely upon the returns of the assessors, express companies, and official 
tables of export. Admitting that a fraction over seven per cent may 
have escaped, although reasonable allowance is made for this in tiie 
estimate of $70,000,000, and that a considerable sum may be derived 
from sources not enumerated, I feel confident the additional allowance 
of $5,000,000 is sufficient to cover the entire bullion product of the 
United States for the year 18G7, thus making the aggregate from all 
sources $75,000,000, as stated in the Report of the Secretary of the 
Treasury. 

"I have endeavored to obtain returns of the annual product of each 
State and Territory since 1843, but for the reasons already stated, and 
in absence of the reliable statistics, it has been impossible to make the 
necessary divisions with more than approximate accuracy. As nearly 
as I can judge from the imperfect returns available, the following, in 
round numbers, is not far from the total product : 

California $900,000,000 

Nevada 90,000,000 



180 THE ISTEW WEST. 

Montana 65,000,000 

Idaho 45,000,000 

Washington 10,000,000 

Colorado 20,000,000 

New Mexico and Arizona 25,000,000 

In jewelry, plate, spoons, etc., and re- 
tained for circulation on Pacific coast.. 45,000,000 
Add for amounts buried or concealed, and 
amounts from unenumerated sources, 
and of which no account may have been 
taken 50,000,000 



Total $1,255,000,000 

" This statement requires explanation. Up to 1855, a considerable 
portion of the gold taken from California was not manifested. In 
1849, the actual yield was probably $10,030,000 ; in 1350, $35,000,000; 
in 1851, $46,000,000 ; in 1852, $50,000,000; in 1853, $60,t00,000; 
and in 1854, $53,000,000. The amount unaccounted for by manifest 
was not so great after the last date. In 18G1, Nevada and Idaho 
commenced adding their treasures to the shipments, so that after that 
date, a deduction for the amounts produced from these sources would 
be necessary, if the manifests alone were taken as a criterion, in order 
to arrive at the product of California. An addition should be made 
for the amount retained for currency, estimated by some as high as 
$45,000,000 ; but probably not exceeding $35,000,000 or $40,000,0 ;0; 
and, for plate, jewelry, etc., of California gold, $2,000,000, and Ne- 
vada silver, $3,000,000. Incorporated in these shipments are the 
amounts received from Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, Washing- 
ton, and British Columbia ; but these cannot be deducted from the 
manifest of Exports, according to the Express returns, since the pro- 
portions are not accurately known of the amounts retained and ship- 
ped, derived from separate sources. 



THE EXPORTATION OF TREASURE FROM CALIFORNLV. 

" The following table shows the amount of treasure manifested for 
exportation from San Francisco : 



EXPORT OF TREASURE. 181 

TEAR. AMOUNT. 

1849 $ 1,921,250 

185) 27,670,346 

1851 42,582,695 

1852 46,588,434 

1853 57,330,034 

1854 51,32?,653 

1855 45,182,631 

1 853 48, 380. 543 

1857 48,976,697 

1858 47,548,025 

1859 47,649,462 

186 ) 42,2)3 345 

1861 40,639,080 

1862 42,53 1 ,761 

18G3 46,071,923 

1864 55,707,201 

1865 44,934,546 

Total $740,832,623 

comparisio:n" of receipts and exports. 

''The following figures show the exports, the receipts, and the differ- 
ence bet\Teen exports and receipts for the last five years : 
Tears. Exports. Receipts. Difference. 

1861 $40,639,080 $43,391,760 $2,752,686 gain 

18G2 42,561,761 49,375,462 6,813,701 '' 

18G3 46,071,920 52,953,961 6,382,041 " 

1854 55,707,201 55,223,407 478,794 loss. 

1865 44,984,546 55,467,593 10,432,947 gain. 

The Northern Mines. — The production from these 
mines is steadily increasing j being in 1862, $30,948,- 
369 J in 1864, $34,782,312; in 1865, $36,649,337. 

These mines, it should be remembered, are in the 
counties north of Stockton. 



182 THE NEVv^ WEST. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD AND VIRGINIA CITY. 

The work accomplished by the Pacific Railroad in 
crossing the Sierras, is one of the marvels of the world 
in engineering skill. The only enterprise approaching 
it, is the railroad opened by the Austrian Govern- 
ment over the Brenner Pass in Tyrol, connecting Inns- 
pruck and Botzen. The American road makes a steady 
ascent for ninety miles from Sacramento to Cisco, its 
present terminus, where it reaches an altitude of 
5,911 feet; as it crosses the summit it is 7,042 feet 
above the level of the sea. During this ascent it cross- 
es enormous ravines on trestle-work, winding in sharp 
curves around the mountain-side, where you look 
down into canons thousands of feet below you, or 
through long mountain valleys filled with pine for- 
ests, and gradually climb, by many a grade and 
curve, grand peaks so high that the snow lies in 
summer on the summits. The motion is slow and 
careful, and as the course is often directly the re- 
verse of the main direction, the traveler has abundant 
opportunity of studying the landscape, and enjoying 
the novel sensation of climbing the American Alps on 
a railway car. Sometimes the track is cut in the 
solid rock, sometimes supported by huge piles of ma- 
sonry, again penetrating in dark tunnels the rocky 



THE PACIFIC RAILEOAD. 183 

mountain-side. Frequently for miles it is covered 
with snow-roofs made of heavy timber ; indeed, it is 
said that forty miles of these roofs must be made be- 
fore the road will be safe from avalanches and snow- 
drifts. The famous tunnel (some 1,700 feet long) 
at the summit is finished, and there is a good deal 
done on the further side, as Ave saw grading work going 
on, with little bevies of Chinese, far up on the moun- 
tain sides for miles beyond. On these alpine summits 
the snow is the great enemy. It piles and drifts here 
forty feet deep. The precipitation of the Sierras is " 
mainly snow, and there are points where, as near Con- 
ner Lake, the fall of snow is some }^ears 60 feet deep. 
This fact, and the accumulation of snow on the Rocky 
Mountains, will always make this route dangerous and 
liable to delays. To have a train snowed up in this 
desolate region, 200 miles from any inhabited district, 
would be no joke. But when the road is fairly finished 
over the Sierras, it v/ill give the grandest journey 
which can be taken on this continent. It is like trav- 
eling by steam over the passes of the Alps, and trav- 
elers will come from far and near to enjoy the magnifi- 
cent scenery of the Sierra Nevada in the comfortable 
railway car. As we cross the summit, the eye trav- 
erses a vast landscape of barren mountain peaks with 
enormous bare valleys between, and beyond, the snowy 
summits of the peaks near Carson River — a scene of 
grandeur and desolation, in which it would seem im- 
possible that a work like a railroad could be construct- 
ed. And far beyond the region which the eye can 
reach, lies a country even yet more difficult and inhos- 



184 THE NEW WEST. 

pitable^ where the real difficulties of the Pacific Koad 
commence — the fearful wilderness and desert be- 
tween the Sierras and Salt Lake, where for five 
hundred, peihaps seven hundred miles, not a tree of 
timber or a piece of firewood can be obtained. There, 
every stick of fuel, every railroad tie, and beam for 
trestle-work, must be carried on construction-trains 
from these mountains. If my readers will fancy 
building a railway in Ohio, and supplying it with fuel 
from New- York, they will understand the difficulties 
which lie before this road. Great depots of wood will 
have to be made at various points in the desert, and 
immense construction-trains employed. The difficulty 
of water, too, is an immense one. In many places, 
even Artesian wells, such is the position of the strata, 
will not bring water ', and when it comes, it will be so 
alkaline as to impede the production of steam. The 
question of questions for the Pacific Road is, ^^ Can coal 
be found near the track f '^ With good anthracite coal 
discovered anywhere convenient to their line they have 
solved the problem. There is no prospect of it near 
the Sierras, but it is confidently believed that near 
Denver, or between that point and Salt Lake good 
coal exists. This fact is to be settled by an important 
geological commission, now engaged under authority 
of Congress in investigating the whole region near the 
40th parallel of latitude, under the direction of Mr. 
Clarence King. With coal even 250 miles away, 
they can manage the question of fuel. Whatever 
energy and capital can accomplish, will be done by the 
Board of Direction in California, who have shown 



PACIFIC RAILKOAD. 185 

a remarkable activity and business skill in their 
operations. The cost of the road, and the great ex- 
pense of running it, will always be an obstacle to cheap 
freights or low fares. Men experienced in these mat- 
ters doubt if they ever carry freights of importance 
from one coast to the other, except the lightest and most 
valuable. But they will create a large local traffic, 
and find their great profits from way-business. There 
must be a great deal also of through travel, both for 
pleasure and business. When our pleasure-seekers 
on the Eastern coast can reach in a week such objects 
of wonderful grandeur and beauty as the Yosemite, 
Lake Tahoe, and the high Sierras, there will be crowds 
taking their summer trip hither. This region will be- 
come our American Switzerland. 

In the Annual Keport for 1868, of the Secretary of 
the Interior a statement is submitted from Mr. Wil- 
liams, one of the Government Directors, as to the 
cost of the Union Pacific Road, which is authentic. 

Assuming that the two companies, the Union Paci- 
fic and Central Pacific, meet near the northern extreme 
of Salt Lake, the total length of line built by the former, 
the eastern company, will be 1,110 miles; and the 
estimated expense, including telegraph, equipment, 
track-laying, bridging and everything, is $38,524,801, 
or $34,917 a mile, or omitting what is not fairly 
chargeable on the track-superstructure, about $27,000 
per mile. To meet this, the following will be their 
assets : 

For 1,110 miles of the road, the cash value of the 
Government bonds and the company's first mortgage 



186 THE NEW WEST. 

bonds, for which this subsidy forms the basis, may be 

estimated as follows : 

United States bonds from Omaha to the 
eastern base of the Kooky Mountains, 
Black Hill Range, as fixed by the Pres- 
ident, 526 miles, at $16,000 $8,416,000 

United States bonds thence for 150 miles, 

at $48,000 7,200,000 

United States bonds for the remainder of 

1,110 miles, being 434 miles, at $32,000 13,888,000 



Total United States bonds bearing 6 per 

cent, in currency .$29,504,000 

Average per mile 26,580 

The company, as the road progresses, issues its 
own first mortgage bonds to the same amount. These 
six per cent, thirty-year bonds, principal and interest 
payable in coin, are a prior lien to that of the 
Government. 

Estimating the Grovernment bonds at par, and the 
company's first mortgage bonds at 92 per cent, over 
all expense of agencies and commissions, the total cash 
proceeds amount to $56,647,680, averaging per mile, 
$51,034. 

The lands granted by Congress, whatever may be 
their value, is a further bestoAvment from the Gov- 
ernment. 

The great routes between the eastern coast and 
the Pacific, will be ultimately, we believe, the South- 
ern Pacific, through Texas, and the Northern, connect- 
ing Lake Superior with Puget's Sound. On neither of 



PACIFIC KAILROAD. i87 

these would snow be an obstacle, and tlie Northern 
will pass through a region destined to be of great value 
in the distant future, while the country between the 
Rocky Mountains and the Sierras must always, with 
the exception of a few districts, be an inhospitable 
wilderness. 

The present Pacific roads have chosen the worst 
isothermals in the United States for their route, and 
for a part, the most desolate and barren desert. They 
will, however, always feed and supply the mining 
regions. 

The Wells & Fargo Express are doing their best to 
fill up the gap of railroad in the midst of the continent. 
The arrangements bear the stamp of the same organ- 
izing brains which have made the Pacific mail organi- 
zation what it is. At the terminus, coaches met the 
passengers, each coach well made and comfortable, 
with six horses, evidently picked Morgans. Fifteen 
passengers were put on a coach, and then, with most 
skillful drivers, we bowled along over an excellent 
road, v,^cll watered, and beneath pine trees, down the 
mountain at the rate of from ten to twelve miles an 
hour ; changing teams every ten miles. There were 
no ruts, and no dust troubled us. I have seen no such 
coaching since years ago in Old England. With an 
outside seat, and in the midst of the Alpine scenery, it 
was the perfection of traveling. At every station 
teams were changed with the greatest rapidity, and it 
was only when night came that we fell into a cautious 
and moderate gait, for which there was reason, as a 
bad accident had occurred the night before — a stage 



188 THE NEW WEST. 

tipping over and killing a lady passenger. Such ac- 
cidents, however, have been rare on this line. The 
Wells & Fargo have won their immense influence and 
business on the Pacific coast by thorough organization 
— by promptness, exactness, and energy. They have 
even in effect driven out the Post-office from a large 
part of its business. With them, the overland route 
will grow continually more complete and convenient. 

VIRGINIA CITY AND THE SILVER MINES. 

Virginia City is certainly one of the most charac- 
teristic places of this remarkable region. If my read- 
ers will imagine a mountain-side of the Sierras with- 
out a tree, amid grand hills, where nothing green can 
be seen for fifty miles, with deep bare valleys, and in 
the distance, beyond Carson Kiver, great blue moun- 
tain peaks capped with snow, and on this mighty 
mountain slope, a little, low-built town — say of 15,000 
inhabitants, with brown, wooden houses and a few 
brick stores, and in its streets a throng and business 
almost like that of Broadway, they will have a feeble 
impression of the ^^ Silver City." It is more than a 
hundred miles away from the first link with civiliza- 
tion, and yet coaches, wagons, and the stream of 
^^ mountain-schooners " pour into it unceasingly j these 
last are enormous freight-vans, drawn by twelve or 
fifteen mules, which carry everything — pianos, glass, 
fruit from every region, silks, machinery, clothing, 
wines, furniture, and all that luxury needs or money 
purchases. One of the characteristic features of the 
place, which I shall never forget, is the pensive, 



THE SILVER CITY. 189 

patient form of the Chinaman, slowly driving his still 
more patient donkey, and selling his dollar's worth of 
wood — yet never crying his wares or soliciting a pur- 
chaser. 

The town, with parallel streets, is built on the 
mines, and is already falling into the cavities, which 
fact seems to trouble the citizens very little. About 
the city, and in it, are the tall chimneys and the gray 
stone buildings of the famous mining companies, 
whose names are known through the world. The 
town is cut off from the pleasures, the art, and the 
civilization of the outside world. It makes up for it 
with the excitements of the stock market. All day 
long the streets boil over with stock speculation. It 
is a most striking contrast ; above, the clear blue sky, 
like that of the high Alps, with its infinite depths ; in 
a few steps, the loneliness of a desert ; around, the 
vast solitudes and mighty snow-peaks of the Sierras J 
and below, men rushing to and fro with wild excite- 
ment to speculate by telegraph in the mining market 
of San Francisco. It is like the sudden transference 
of the William street Gold-room to the top of Mount 
Kighi. 

Here hundreds of thousands are won and lost in a 
day. Here cunning directors are occupied in ^^ freez-: 
ing out " unfortunate stockholders thousands of miles 
away, or are forcing up stocks, whose worthlessness 
they know, to incredible values, or are preparing new 
reports and statements to beguile the unhappy public, 
A single day will alter the apparent value of property 
here by millions of dollars. 



J 90 THE NEW WEST. 

At niglit, Virginia City is ablaze with the lights of 
liquor-saloons^ and there being, I suppose, little 
society in the place, these haunts are thronged with 
men. I did not, however, happen to see any hard 
drinking or drunkenness. The only women visible 
were evidently women of bad character. 

I had much conversation with some of the clergy- 
men and others, who were seeking to benefit the 
morals of the town. The great thing needed is, evi- 
dently, a refined and virtuous female society. Such a 
throng of men, thrown together in a wild pursuit of 
gain, without family life or the influence of superior 
women, must deteriorate and injure one another. Life 
has no attractions to offer here but the intense strug- 
gle for gold, the excitements of gambling, and the 
pleasures of low vice. 

So demoralizing is the place, that men who have 
been here for many years, lose all taste for the higher 
pleasures of civilization or for family life, and find any 
other pursuits dull and insipid. There are, it is- true, 
families in the town of much refinement and character, 
but they have no perceptible influence on the mass. 
As a means of contending with the temptations of hard 
drinking, I wonder that the religious community of 
Virginia City have not tried the simple experiment 
which has worked so much good in New York — the 
founding of social resorts, where liquors are not sold, 
and good reading is supplied, such as our '^ Cofi'ee and 
Reading-rooms.'^ Many a young man might be saved 
by them. 

How much there are needed, through the mining 



MORAL EFFORTS NEEDED. 191 

regions of California, truly Christian and humane mis- 
sionaries ; men of tact and talent, without the stiffness 
of the profession, with knowledge of the world, and 
warm hearts, who could go among these rough or busy 
men, and offer them what they seldom receive, a man- 
ly sympathy. 

California, as I have often said, is not what we in 
the East consider it, a country alone of success and 
fortune. There is many a man in the battle of life 
here who falls defeated and alone, or lies wounded and 
broken behind the successful march, or creeps away 
to die unnoticed. A man of religion and humanity 
coming among the miners, and offering a heart full of 
sympathy, would find so many hidden wounds — so 
much disappointment — so many unseen struggles for 
a better life, that the hearts of these rough men would 
open at once to any one inspired by religion and sym- 
pathy. It is a wonder to me that the churches have 
done so little for a population of such intelligence as 
this, and of such needs. 

THE SILVER MINES. 

The Comstock Lode, on w^hich the silver mines of 
Virginia City and Gold Hill are situated*, is probably 
the most productive mineral vein in the world. It is 
only a strip of land three miles long by 600 yards wide, 
yet it yields $12,000,000 annually. Five thousand men 
are employed on it during the year, and the produce 
for each workman is about $2,000 per annum — an 
average of production, probably equaled on no other 
mineral vein in the world. In 1865 there were 46 



192 THE NEW AVEST. 

companies working it, Avho owned 22,258 feet, and 
had excavated about 28 miles of tunnels and drifts, 
and 5 3-4 miles of shafts, wings and inclines, with 
some 33 miles more of chimneys, etc. The longest 
tunnel made is the Latrobe — 3,200 feet ; the greatest 
depth penetrated is by the Goidd & Curry, 821 feet. 
These companies have 44 hoisting and pumping en- 
gines, aggregating more than 1,500 horse-power J 76 
mills are employed in reducing the ore, with an ag- 
gregate capacity for crushing 1,800 tons daily. They 
consume annually about 22,2G5 cords of wood, at a 
cost of about $16 per cord. Their wood and timber 
together are estimated to cost annually about $1,000,- 
000. 

Mount Davidson, in which this famous vein occurs, 
is a barren mountain, composed of serpentine, quartz, 
syenite, gneiss, and talcose and calcareous rocks. Its 
summit is 7,827 feet above the sea level, while the 
vein itself and Virginia City are about 6,200 feet. 
The lode is a regular fissure vein, and subject to the 
usual displacements and faults of mineral veins, which 
throw such an uncertainty over all mining operations. 
At one place it may be entirely interrupted by trap- 
dykes or other rocks, or the wall-rock may be imbed- 
ded in it, or other matter destitute of ore. The ore, 
too, is often deposited in ^^ chimneys ^^ which run 
lengthways with the vein, and thus carry the rich de- 
posits out of one property into another ; so that the 
unfortunate company which had been gathering their 
hundreds of thousands in one month, may be entirely 
without income the next j and yet after penetrating 



SILVER MINIMS. 193 

posit, or they may labor for years without meeting with 
any. 

I visited, during my stay in Virginia City, the 
Savage Mine, as being one of the safest and best con- 
ducted, and also went over the works of the Gould 
& Curry, Hale & Norcross, and Empire. In the Sav- 
age we were placed on a platform in a shaft, and with 
a warning from my conductor, we disappeared as if 
by magic from the cheerful surface of the world, and 
descended with frightful rapidity some 600 feet into 
the bowels of the mountain, getting wild glimpses as 
we passed of what seemed dark caverns, with lights 
gleaming, and mysterious-looking forms wielding the 
pick-ax — which were the various levels with their 
workmen — until we landed quietly near the bottom. 

These steam-worked shafts and platforms, however, 
seem very dangerous things, and I hear of constant 
horrible accidents in them. It was remarkable how 
dry and commodious the various wings and levels and 
galleries were in this mine. My guide took fragments 
from each rock as Ave groped around the mine, and 
gave estimates of its value with perfect confidence. 

^^ This will pay $40 a ton; this, $15; this, $80; 
this, $500 ; and this, $2,000 ! " while all I could dis- 
cern was a more or less dark shade of the sulphurets. 
He says (what I hear everywhere) that the companies 
now are careful not to commit the error of the Gould 
& Curry, and bring all their best ores at once to the 
mill, but they mix them and so average their product. 
They all are working with for greater economy than 

they used to ; and when a branch of the Pacific Road 
9 



194 THE NEW WEST. 

touches Virginia City they hope to De able to bring 
do\Yn their expense for fuel (now $15 a cord) and for 
lumber (now $45 per thousand) at least one-half. My 
guide — a very intelligent foreman who has risen from 
the workmen — says that the miners are constantly in- 
vesting their savings in one, two, or three of the shares 
of these companies, and knowing the precise condition 
of their own mines, they often make large sums. 

The cost of reducing the ore in the Savage was about 
$1G per ton, and the yield averages about $44. 

In 18G6, this mine alone produced 30,G53 tons of 
ore, and reduced 20,535 — valued at $1,303,582. Dur- 
ing the twenty-six months after they began their 
works (April, 1863) they produced bullion valued at 
$3,600,709, and paid out in dividends over $800,000. 
During the first six months of 1867, the mine produced 
$1,845,000 of bullion against $711,553 in 1866, and 
divided $750 per share in the same period, or $600,- 
000 against no dividend in 1866. Its shares were 
worth this summer about $4,700 per foot. 

The general opinion in the other mines seemed to 
be, that this company had ore enough in sight to pay 
large dividends for a year. Yet no sane mortal 
on the eastern coast should think of investing in 
this or any other California or Nevada mine on the 
strength of such facts. 

Indeed, the more I see of mines and mining operators 
on this coast, the more I wonder that eastern capital 
can be directed to them with any confidence or reason- 
able hope. When a given mining stock is presented 
to investors in New York or New England, no one can 



DAITGEROUS INVESTMENTS. 195 

possibly say how much real value it represents. It 
may all exist in imagination, or it may represent a 
hond fide mining claim 5 but what its value will be a 
month or a year hence, no mortal can predict. It may 
be even the best existing silver-mining stock on the 
Pacific coast, and yet in three months not be worth 
one-half its present price. Every superintendent to 
whom I spoke in the Comstock mines said to me that 
he could not possibly predict what their product Avould 
be after a twelvemonth ; it might be tenfold their pres- 
ent 'j it might be nothing. The business is the most 
uncertain imaginable. It is said that the hills about 
Virginia City could be covered with the silver dollars 
uselessly wasted by ^^ eastern" investors and specu- 
lators. 

Then mining stocks on this coast have fallen to a 
large degree into the hands of the most unscrupulous 
gamblers. No such sharpers exist in the world as 
deal in mining-stock speculations in California and 
Nevada. Beside them Wall street itself is rural and 
moral. Many of them have now large individual and 
banking capital to back them. They can falsely re- 
duce values, and purposely diminish production, till 
they can lay assessments and ^^ freeze out " the un- 
happy stockholders, and then buy in themselves ; or 
they can produce extravagantly a short time, and ^' cor- 
ral'^ a stock, till it rises to fabulous prices, and then 
sell out, leaving the unfortunate public the owner of a 
worthless property. The general rumor in CaUfornia 
accuses the Bank of California, or its managers, of 
furthering these unprincipled speculations. But while 



196 THE NEW WEST. 

even the occasional prizes of silver-mining remain as 
they do on this coast there will always be investors 
and speculators. 

Thus, take such fortune as this ; the Empire 
Mining Company was organized in Virginia City 
on March 7, 1863. On November 30, 1864, they 
had crushed about 25,000 tons of ore, and had received 
from it in bullion, $1,043,720. No capital stock was 
ever paid in, though it was valued (in 1864) at a mil- 
lion ; no assessment had ever been laid, and the mine 
had paid all expenses, beside paying the owners 
$308,000 above all cost and charges. Its dividends 
in 1865 amounted to $120,000. This property, which 
had cost its owners nothing, was at one time worth 
$10,000 a foot. In 1866 it had fallen to $1,000 : it 
is now worth $180 a share, or $1,800 a foot. 

The fluctuations in some of these mining stocks 
have been marvelous ; thus, Gould & Curry was 
worth in 1859 $3 a foot j in eight months it rose to 
$600 5 in less than two years it rose to $5,0U0, and 
reached once, we think, $7,000. It is now worth 
$700. This company alone has taken out $14,000,- 
000 worth of bullion, and has paid over $4,000,000 in 
dividends. Theie seemed to be very little doing in 
its works during my visit. The mine may, however, 
yet strike some fresh deposit, and its value rise again. 
Hale & Norcross again has risen in a single year (1865- 
^66) from $150 to $1,275 per foot; it is now $3,250. 
This mine worked four years without discovering any 
ore of value, and expended $350,000 without appar- 
ent result. In 1866 it struck pay-ore, and produced 



PEOFITS. 197 

$736,394 in bullion in eight months. During the 
first six months of 1867 it divided $290,000 to its 
stockholders, and is now one of the most profitable 
mines on the Comstock Lode. 

There was a great increase in the product of many 
of these Comstock mines during 1867. Thus twelve 
of the most important produced, in the first half of 
1866, an aggregate value of bullion of $4,926,707; 
in 1867, in a similar period, their product was $8,043,- 
343. Their market value has increased also in a 
striking manner. The stocks of fifteen leading com- 
panies were worth, on July 1, 1866, $5,739,780 ; on 
July 1, 1867, they were worth $13,683,640. 

This increase of value is partly due to good luck, 
but partly to greater economy of working. It is said 
that nearly one-fourth of all the bullion received from 
Nevada during the past six months, has been collected 
from the waste of the mills. The entire cafion 
through which the tailings and waste from the mills 
about Virginia City and Cold Hill flow to Carson 
River, has been flumed for several miles. The bot- 
tom of the flume is covered with blankets, which are 
changed every four or eight hours to gather the ma- 
terial collected on them. This refuse and waste is 
said to be worked at a higher profit than some of the 
original ores. 

The whole yield of the mines on the Comstock 
Lode from 1859 to 1867, is estimated at $66,000,000, 
or about $44 to the ton of ore. The whole yield for 
Nevada for 1867 is estimated at $19,000,000, or say 
$17,500,000 for these mines. 



198 THE NEW WEST 

Tlie ores of the Comstock mines are generally black 
and gray sulphurets of silver; occasionally native 
silver is found. Combined with the ore are sulphur- 
ets, in small quantities, of iron, lead, antimony, cop- 
per, &c. The silver has gold also associated with it. 

The ores are treated by simple crushing and amal- 
gamating. The great instrument for amalgamating is 
the pan, of which there are several kinds in use It 
is generally a cast iron vessel, two feet deep, and from 
two to seven feet in diameter. A shaft rises through 
it, turned by steam or water, and to it are fastened 
pieces of iron, which are made to run over the move- 
able iron bottom and grind the pulp Some have 
chambers at the bottom for steam, to keep the pulp 
at a temperature of 200 degrees. Into the pan is put 
a quantity of ore with salt, iron pyrites, quicksilver, 
and enough water to make mud. 

The great object of the ^^muller,'^ or grinder, is to 
grind thoroughly the material, and to bring all the par- 
ticles in contact with the quicksilver. The pan is 
worked about three hours and a half, and then water 
is run into the pulp to render it liquid enough to flow 
off through a valve in the bottom, into the "agitator" 
or "separator;'' as it flows off or runs over, it forms a 
genuine silver mud, in which the traveler has the sat- 
isfaction of wading for the first time in his life. In 
the separator, pulp is mixed with a large quantity of 
water, and by an arrangement of discharging openings, 
is gradually strained and relieved of its earthy parti- 
cles, until nothing but pyrites and liquid amalgam are 
left. 



SILVER MUD. 199 

The amalgam is drawn off from the bottom, and is 
washed in clear water and dried with flannel. It is 
finally strained through thick conical bags of canvas, 
which are beaten with sticks to drain them thoroughly. 

The hard dry amalgam is finally carried to the assay 
ofiice, where the mercury is separated by exposing it 
to red heat in a cast-iron cylindrical retort. The 
mercury is vaporised, and then condensed by a stream 
of cold water in a ^^ Liebig Condenser." The silver 
remaining is broken up and melted in plumbago cru- 
cibles, and cast into *^ bricks '^ or ingots of silver, 
which are assayed, valued, and marked accordingly. 

Among the many friends to whose attentions I am 
indebted in Virginia City, I must speak of the polite- 
ness and hospitality of Mr. Graves, Superintendent 
of the Empire Mills. 



CHAPTER XV. 

PROFESSIONAL ROBBERS. 

I HAVE reached now the mountain region of Califor- 
nia^ where robbing is almost a profession. Not a 
week passes, sometimes not three days, in which we 
do not hear of a coach robbed or of teamsters or foot- 
passengers being plundered. No one resists. Your 
native Californian takes robbing as an Englishman 
without an umbrella takes a shower. It is impleasant, 
he may grumble a little, but it belongs to a law of 
nature. A man is considered somewhat of a fooh 
who should be killed defending his property. I have 
often talked with the old settlers about this non-re- 
sisting habit. It does not arise from want of courage, 
for if a mountain Californian possesses any virtue, it 
is a reckless disregard of life. It seems to come from 
a low appreciation of money, where it is made so 
easily, and a cool, intelligent accepting of a fact, as 
a fact. They understand perfectly vvhat a ^' six- 
shooter'^ means Avhen presented to their face, and 
they hand over their "bullion." It was the same 
sort of American intelligence which kept New Orleans 
perfectly quiet under Gen. Butler's strong arm, 
where an Italian city would have been fermenting 
with outbreaks. 



GENTLEMEN KOBBEES. 201 

The usual habit of the ^^ gentlemen of the road '^ is 
this, as I have gathered from innumerable stories : 
They wait till they hear of a coach with a Wells & 
Fargo box of treasure. In a narrow pass of rocks or 
the depth of the forest, the driver suddenly hears from 
a man at the roadside, with a sack, mask, and a re- 
peating rifle, ^^ Hollo, Charley ! Stop a bit ! " Charley 
never carries arms, and reins up his long team at 
once. One robber unfastens the traces, another cov- 
ers the coach with his gun, and another steps up to 
the coach door. There is no vulgar presenting of 
pistols in the faces of the passengers. The leader has 
his revolvers at his side and his Henry's rifle in one 
hand, but he thoroughly knows his men, and merely 
opens the door, and troubles the gentlemen passengers 
to step out a moment. The ladies are not molested, 
for the Californian is polite to women, even in articuh 
mortis. The gentlemen are arranged in a line, and 
then the great object of the hunt is dragged out — the 
Wells & Fargo strong-box. Axes are brought or 
gunpowder is applied, and the safe is opened. The 
driver offers a robber a ^^ chaw of tobacco," and the 
latter talks sociably with him of the weather or other 
matters. No one grumbles and no one swears. If a 
good haul is made from the strong-box, the passen- 
gers are allowed to go back to their seats with a polite 
^^good evening" from the highwaymen. But if not 
much is found, they are required to hand over any 
bullion or spare cash they may have. They are not 
searched, and manage frequently to conceal large 
sums in the coach or on their persons. One of my 
9^ 



202 THE NEW WEST. 

friends, robbed tlius of thirty or forty dollars, repre- 
sented that he would not have enough to get home, 
and they restored him his money. Another was 
found with but ten dollars, and the thieves told him 
he would not have enough to get down to the settle- 
ments, and presented him with twenty-five ! 

Two coaches last Autumn, near Virginia City, with 
some thirty passengers, were thus robbed by only 
three or four men. 

My own experience has been interesting. A friend, 
in the usual hearty manner of the country, had driven 
me over in his own team from Virginia City to Lake 
Tahoe, doing eighteen miles in an hour and a half, 
and the rest of the distance at the rate of ten miles an 
hour. 

The lake is one of the gems of the Sierras — perhaps 
the wildest and most striking sheet of water in Amer- 
ica — a broad, blue, sparkling lake, with water clear 
as crystal, set in the midst of grand snow peaks and 
an outline of mountains almost as wild as the Alps 
around Lake Lucerne, with forests of pine growing 
down to the water's edge. It is a wonder that the 
lake is not more known and visited. It is said by 
Professor Whitney to be over 1000 feet deep, while 
its mountain sides are over 3000 feet high. Professor 
W. supposes that its formation may be traced to simi- 
lar causes to those which produced the Yosemite — a 
deep local subsidence in connection with volcanic 
action. 

At Friday's Station I was to take the stage, and 
while waiting here, exciting rumors began to arrive 



ROBBIlS'a BY STAGES. 203 

through the teamsters continually coming in. Three 
men, who were believed to be deserters from the army, 
had begun, about seventy miles below, a regular rob- 
bing raid. They entered houses, stopped passengers, 
rifled teamsters, and were plundering all along the 
way. They laid by in the day in the sage brush, and 
at night resumed their thieving march. The people 
here reckoned that they traveled about fourteen miles 
every night. ^^ They were down at Yank's night be- 
fore last ; they'll be at Osgood's to-night, and about 
here to-morrow night ! Are you all ready, Jim 1 " Jim 
replied that he was getting ready his pistols and shot- 
guns for them ; but this robbing by regular stages, on a 
telegraph and coach road, struck me as highly charac- 
teristic. I asked them Avhy they did not turn out and 
hunt the fellows down. '^ Let them darned fellers as 
was robbed, hunt 'em if they want. I ain't agoin' to ! 
Besides, Watson and Jim Hines is after 'em." 

As we drove down the mountain at night, the 
driver shouted before the houses occasionally: 
^^ Heard anything of the robbers?" ^^No; but we 
are gettin' ready for 'em." And to an old black 
hostler, ^^ I say, C^sar, they'll clean you out ! " 
^^ Wall," was the reply, rather pitifully, ^^ I hain't got 
nothin' but one biled shirt, and that's bein' washed." 

Gradually we began to hear news of the thieves. 
An up-driver said he passed the " What Cheer House " 
down below, and the landlord was in a great trouble. 
He had put his head out of the windoAv, and asked 
the driver to stop, for God's sake, for robbers were in 
the house, and if one of the passengers had a pistol 



204 THE NEW WEST. 

they and the driver might drive them out. The driver 
said he " drove up to the end of the house^ but there 
was a woman and child inside the coach^ who com- 
menced hucJiing so, and there ain't none of them pas- 
sengers as ever have pistols, so I drove along/' leaving 
the fate of the landlord of the ^^What Cheer " in pro- 
found mystery. To us the driver said, confidingly : 
^^ They'll clean you out, sure." I had a fellow-pas- 
senger on the front seat, an old Californian, who had, 
thus far, been profoundly indifferent to the robbing ru- 
mors. He now looked languidly up : "I say. Bill, 
have those robbers anything with them!" ^^ Wall, I 
should think they had j two double-barreled shot guns 
and a rifle. I see 'em last night ! " ^' Then they may 
have all I've got," said the other, indifferently, and 
turned over to sleep. 

It was impossible for me to sleep. The coach-lights 
flashing among the forest trees seemed to reveal 
bands of armed men, and every now and then, as 
some rock stood out in the weird gleam, it assumed 
the form of a bandit, with slouched hat and gun. 
Several times I clutched my watch to put it in my 
satchel, as the coach suddenly stopped, or an unusual 
noise was heard, but no robbers appeared. At length, 
at a toU-bridge, two men with slouched hats and gims 
stepped forward to the coach, but their manner Avas 
too quiet for the gentry of the road, and I saw they 
must be the officers of whom we had heard. We had 
gone but a little distance beyond the bridge when 
crack ! crack ! a volley re-echoed among the rocks, 
which set my heart beating and caused me to hide my 



A VOLLEY. 205 

watch quickly in my bag, and some gold pieces in my 
shoes. I expected to hear the driver drop or the 
team stop. But nothing occurred; the driver never 
stopped or spoke ; my fellow-passenger barely in- 
terrupted his snoring enough to wake up and mutter, 
^^ They^re done for, I bet ! " evidently regarding the 
whole affair as we would a thunder-storm. I thought 
it would not do to appear ignorant of the customs of 
the country, even if fusilading coaches was one, so I 
said nothing, and we proceeded on in silence. 

At length, about ten miles further on, as the driver 
stopped to water, he asked casually, "" Did you hear 
that shooting ? ^^ '^ Yes, I should think I did,'' I 
answered excitedly ; ^^ what was it f ^^ I guess it 
was Watson and Jm Hines cleanin' them robbers 
out at Osgood's," he answered indifferently. ^^Fust, 
I thought I was done for ! " and this was all om' con- 
versation, except that my fellow-passenger shouted, 
" I say, di'iver, if you see anything of 'em, wake me 
up ! " 

At Placerville we learned, through the telegraph, 
that the Sheriff and his assistant had fought the rob- 
bers on Osgood's bridge, a few rods behind us, and 
killed the ringleader, wounded another, and the third 
had escaped ; they had also wounded the assistant, in 
return. They must have passed us near the bridge, 
but for some inscrutable reason, whether dreading 
Wells & Fargo's wrath, or fearing pm-suit, they did 
not stop the coach. 

The people generally were of the impression that 
the third highwayman would not be found in a condi- 



206 THE NEW WEST. 

tion to be returned for a trial by jury. ^^ I sbouldn't 
like to be bim^ if Jim Hines was after me witb a 
broken arm ! He'll be sot upon tbere ! Jim 'ill talk 
to him some ! " 

Wbat is wanted in California is a mounted police. 
One would think that between the local communities 
and Wells & Fargo (who are said to lose by robbers 
some S20,000 a year) an efficient force of police^ 
with good horses^ might be maintained, so as to make 
the mountains thoroughly safe. 

There was a very striking instance, last year, of 
summary punishment inflicted on robbers. A coach 
had been stopped, and a strong box of Wells & Far- 
go rifled of several thousand dollars. The robbers 
were known even by name, as usual, and as the Ex- 
press Company offered a large reward, the police 
were soon in active pursuit. They were led by a 
very determined and skillful officer, named Wilson. 
He traced the thieves through the mountains, up to a 
certain canon which divided into two branches. His 
men he sent up one, and he himself coolly and warily 
threaded the other. At length, he came in sight of 
them on a hillside in the distance. In California, 
there is no parleying with robbers, or summoning to 
surrender, or any such nonsense. The thief and the 
policeman ahke hold their lives in their hands. The 
robbers here had fortunately only revolvers and shot- 
guns, but the Sheriff" a Henry's repeating rifle, with 
which he was a crack shot. He kneeled and took de- 
liberate aim, as he would at a deer, and rolled one 
robber over into the canon, the second he brought 



A CEACK SHOT. 207 

down in like manner, and tlie third, as lie sprang for 
the woods, was wounded, and subsequent discovered 
dying in the bushes. Such an act of remarkable 
nerve and coolness rang through the State, and Wil- 
son was even made ^^ Aid" to the Governor, as a 
tribute to his bravery. 



208 THE NEW WEST. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE CHINESE OF CALIFOENIA. 

One of the most striking figures to tlie traveler^ in the 
California landscape^ is the Oriental and half-pensive 
form of the Chinese emigrant, always calm amid all the 
bustle around him. Sometimes I see these Eastern 
laborers with their broad hats leisurely working in the 
fruit-gardenSj as if in a tea plantation. Sometimes they 
are binding sheaves behind the American reapers j 
again, quietly and reflectively shaking the ^^ rocker'^ 
for gold-dust in some lonely river bottom, or stea'dily 
working in swarms on a railroad embankment, or rid- 
ing slowly castaway horses in the Sierras, or traveling 
over the country mounted on the coach-tops, or mak- 
ing a large and picturesque part of the stream of human- 
ity which pours through the streets of San Francisco 
— always busy yet never hurried ; clean, social, sober, 
polite, with an expression, it often seems to me, of half 
contempt for this western hurry and barbarism ; the 
neatest and most respectable working population I ever 
saw. I am often surprised at the faces and expressions 
one encounters among them 5 such, if you saw them in 
European dress, you would have said were the faces cer- 
tainly of scholars and gentlemen — countenances fre- 
quently of marked refinement, and eyes of deep, 
thoughtful, almost sad expression. It is a strange 



THEIE SUBMISSIOiq-. 209 

contrast the powerful, intense, pushing sons of the Pil- 
grims, and this meek, quiet, dreamy pagan of the Ori- 
ent, meeting on the shores of the Pacific. The latter 
bends like the rush before our iron race ; he abandons 
the immemorial customs of ages, and falls, to a degree, 
into the current of Anglo-American civilization. One 
old sea captain, who had been much in the East, said he 
had seen many countries where the Chinese were liv- 
ing as strangers, but ^^this was the only one where John 
Chinaman hides his pig-tail." He dresses frequently 
(in the country) like an American ; he begins occa- 
sionally to eat beef, and has already learned something 
of Yankee sharpness. In general, however, he is still 
a stranger — the very incarnation of meekness and 
submission beneath the strong race which he is serv- 
ing. 

There is one habit in man which always seemed to 
me to bring him nearest to the brute creation — the 
disposition to attack or oppress a fellow-creature who 
is disabled by nature or is too Aveak to resist ; that 
tendency which makes horses kick the lame one, or 
fowls attack the dying one of the flock. 

The Chinaman has been the luckless object of this 
brutal instinct in California. He has incarnated, amid 
a Christian community, the inspired doctrine of " Re- 
sist not evil ! " ^^ Turn ye the other cheek ! " and the 
result has been that every man's hand has been 
against him. The whites have cheated, robbed, beaten 
him, and he has returned it all with docility and faith- 
ful service. "When struck, he struck not again ; when 
robbed (at least so it was a few years ago), he com- 



210 THE NEW WEST. 

plained not ; when murdered^ there was often no re- 
dress. The most miserable drunken white ruffian 
could beat him^ or strip him of his hard earnings^ or 
kill him^ and if there were no white witnesses^ justice 
could not overtake the offender. While all other men 
— even the lowest vagabonds — were gladly admitted 
to the mines^ he alone was^ and is now, excluded ; and 
even on the placer-diggings, he alone must pay his tax 
of four dollars before being permitted to work. Even 
the Digger Indians^ seeing this universal oppression, 
ventured also to plunder and persecute this imresisting 
stranger. 

He had no influential friends j he did not know the 
language 5 he had no power to resist, and for years the 
Chinaman tried the virtue of meekness on his enemies. 

It is a history, like our treatment of the Indians and 
the negroes, which should make every American blush 
— of wrong done to the helpless and borne with meek- 
ness 5 of oppression on the weak which never called 
forth an act of resistance or word of retort. At length, 
the aspect of this Christian patience in a Pagan ; this 
meekness, which bore all without a murmur ; of this 
enduring, industrious, respectful stranger, who did his 
work faithfully, and returned not evil for evil, began 
to touch the generosity of Californians. The China- 
man, even against the prejudices of race, and the com- 
petition of ignorant labor, began to win his way to pub- 
lic respect. White men sometimes took his part 
against white ruffians. Employers found him too use- 
ful to permit him to be driven off by "anti-coolie" 
vagabonds. The conscience of the people arose 



CHANGE OF OPINION. 211 

against this oppression. Public opinion more and 
more sheltered Mm, and set the pursuit of justice after 
those who wronged him. White men have even been 
hung, in these later years, for murdering Chinese. 
Their labor, too, became more and more indispensable 
for the country. A hmidred different branches soon 
depended on it. Without it, it Avas evident that man- 
ufactures and a large part of Californian agriculture 
and horticulture would cease to exist 5 railroads could 
not be constructed, and a vast deal of business must 
be contracted or given up. The result, both of con- 
science and of interest, in California, has been a great 
change of opinion and action toward the Chinese. 
People everywhere speak well of them, and agree that 
they are the most industrious and steady of laborers, 
not as efficient, perhaps, as the Irish, but more regular 
and sober, and with a great talent at imitation. In 
person they are the neatest of creatures. I have seen 
a whole gang, after a day^s work on a farm, washing 
themselves all over with warm water, which they keep 
ready for their return, as carefully as a company of 
gentlemen, and I was assured this is their daily habit. 
The common laborers are said to keep a horn instru- 
ment for cleaning their tongues every morning ! They 
are always neatly and nicely dressed, and are far more 
agreeable coach-company than the Mexicans or Span- 
iards here, who are exceedingly ^^ odorous." But 
though opinion has so much changed toward them, I 
frequently hear of or see such acts as this, reported 
recently to the Bulletin : 



212 THE NEW WEST. 

"a. brutal scene. 

" Editor Bulletin — A most inhuman scene occurred on Sunday 
evening at the corner of Green and Dupont streets. A party of 
young scamps — the oldest not more than eleven years — attacked a 
peaceable Chinaman, without provocation, and beat him in an unmer- 
ciful manner. They pulled him down, beat and kicked him, and 
pelted him with stones till the blood ran out of the wounds. A large 
crowd stood ai ound at the time, and none of them offered to interfere. 
One man — elbowing and pushing himself up to where the poor fellow 
Jay — seeing that it was a Chinaman, exclaimed, ' O, it's nothing but 
a Chinaman ! Served him right; been a good thing if they had killed 
him entirely ! ' When the policeman arrived the boys had decamped ; 
and when he proceeded to lift the Chinaman it was found that he 
was not able to stand, the poor fellow groaning the while in terrible 
agony. 

"These flagrant outrages are frequent in that neighborhood. 
Hardly a night passes but what a Chinaman is attacked by these 
young ruffians." 

Or this : 

" Iix-TREATMENT OF CHINESE. — Not long ago, a gentleman pass- 
ing along Kearny street, interfered to save a little Chinese boy from 
the attacks of a dog, whom half a dozen white-skinned scoundrels 
were setting upon him, that they might enjoy the precious sight of 
the agony of the screaming child. That instance of inhumanity is 
not an isolated case. The Alta of yesterday morning says : 

" Last evening, at the fire on Dupont street, a crowd of Waverley 
Place loafers, and thieves, and roughs, who were being kept back 
from the fire by the police, amused themselves by throwing a 
Chinawoman down in the muddy street, and dragging her back and 
forth by the hair for some minutes. The poor female heathen was 
rescued from their clutches at last by officer Saulsbury, and taken to 
the calaboose for jirotection. He also arrested one of her assailants, 
who was pointed out by the woman, but as she could not testify 
against him he was dismissed on his arrival at the calaboose. The 
woman then begged an officer to take her to her husband's house, say- 
ing, in piteous accents, ' Do pleasy with me go ! So many white 
mans killy me ! Do with me go ! '" 

My laundryman came recently, with his basket 
splashed with mud and his clothes spoiled, weeping 



WRONGS 01^ THE CHIiq"ESE. 213 

bitterly, saying that some boys had pelted and at- 
tacked him. He evidently had not resisted. I Avas 
pleased to see, however, the other day, that some 
^^anti-coolie '' school-boys, who were attacking some 
little yellow boys, met with as good as they gave, and 
at length were fairly driven off the field by the stones 
of their Mongolian antagonists. 

The odious tax on the Chinese miner, however, 
still exists, and he is still excluded from most of the 
mines. Moreover, at this day, a white scoundrel 
could enter the cabin of half-a-dozen honest Chinese 
with his revolver in hand, rob them of their toilsome 
earnings, and murder one or more, and no testimony 
of cheirs could convict him. Such an injustice as 
this, established by law, is a damning blot on Califor- 
nian civilization. It is as bad as many of the 
abuses of slavery, and one is surprised how the 
humanity and religion of this State coidd have en- 
dured it so long. No sensible man of any party de- 
fends it. 

The old battle of humanity fought out on our coast, 
of justice to the negro, is going on here in different 
form — of justice to the pagan. The same weapons 
are used, the same appeals to low and ignorant preju- 
dices of race, and the same assertion of the universal 
rights of humanity. Caste and ignorance and dema- 
gogue sophisms on one side, and enthusiasm and gen- 
erosity and the principles of justice on the other. 
In the recent political canvass, the Union candidate 
was represented in caricatures as leading to the polls a 
Digger Indian, a Chinaman, and a baboon, though all 



214 THE NEW WEST. 

that he or his party ever claim for the Chinaman is 
^^ justice before the law.'^ 

And when we read of a prominent politician — 
Judge AxTELL, a successful candidate for Congress 
— uttering such nonsense as this (and we seem to have 
heard precisely the same sentiments a hundred times 
in New York political meetings), we know perfectly 
what sort of men utter them, and what hear them : 

''The employment of Chinese/' said the Judge, "on the Pacific 
Eailroad, toward the construction of which California and the 
United States had made magnificent donations in money and lands, 
he condemned emphatically. He was opposed to, and would prevent 
as far as possible, giving that glorious patrimony to Chinese or ne- 
groes. The advantages of that great work must redound to the bene- 
fit of white men." 

We also know how such a contest must end. Yle 
know that the spirit of the age and all forces unseen, 
are moving like a spring- tide with the party of justice, 
and however long delayed, the triumph of equal rights 
to all must come. 



CHAPTER XVIL 

THE CHINESE. 

A FRIEND, to whom I am indebted for many hospita- 
ble favors, took me recently among the Chinese mer- 
chants and in the Chinese' quarter of San Francisco. 
The merchants were gentlemen evidently, and receiv- 
ed us with as much politeness and refinement as the 
same class would visitors in any civilized country. We 
were invariably offered tea, which was made at the 
moment, in exceedingly small and delicate China cups, 
and then drained from the leaves into another cup, and 
drunk without sugar or cream — a finer tea, it struck 
me, than any we have on the eastern coast. They 
all spoke rather discouragingly of business, whether 
because they considered that were safer in a for- 
eign country, or because the Chinese are gleaning less 
from the diggings, and their custom is falling off. It 
was plain that they had no love for the country, and 
feel the oppressions and disabilities bitterly to which 
they are subjected. If they had any matter of dispute 
with an American or with one of their own countrymen, 
they preferred to decide it by arbitration, they said, 
as they had no expectation of any justice from juries 
or courts. They all expected to return to China, though 
some had been here a number of years. What pleased 
them most here was the climate, of which all spoke 



216 THE NEW WEST. 

with much satisfaction. If I understood them cor- 
rectly^ most of the under-class were laborers from up 
the rivers in China, who were sent out by four dif- 
ferent emigration companies, Avho paid them so much 
wages and received what they earned. But few of the 
upper classes ever come here, and seldom any families. 
The women were mostly of bad character. They all 
agreed that this was not the place for a Chinese lady. 

Those who spoke English seemed generally to have 
learned it in a school whiph a liberal American has 
opened for their children. We examined their com- 
puting tables with sliding balls, and put some rather 
long problems to them, which they completed as soon 
with these as we could with figures. Some took us up- 
stairs to their little Chinese parlors, furnished with 
handsome formal black-oak chairs, nicely carved, and 
with Japanese tables; the floors were covered with 
matting, everything very neat and clean. I am told 
that they are exceedingly faithful in all their engage- 
ments, and that there are merchants here who might 
have as good credit as any American names in San 
Francisco. ''There are men here," said my friend, 
'Svho, if they should agree to pay $250,000 for some- 
thing the day after to-morrow, would be certain to 
present the cash on the very moment ; though where 
they keep it is a mystery, as they do not bank with 
us.'^ I could not find that they ever insured with 
American companies. A legal friend — a most genial 
and able man, Mk. Tompkins — who has occasion- 
ally had them as clients, tells me that he never in 
his professional experience has had more intelligent 



CIII.N^ESE COUm^ESIES. 217 

and reasonable clients, or has met men with more 
pleasant little courtesies. Another says that he has 
occasionally been present at dinners given by their 
leading merchants, and their tact in offering the healths 
of particular individuals, and coupling with them some 
personal and appreciative remarks, could not be ex- 
ceeded in the most polite English or American circles. 
We asked the most cultivated of these merchants about 
Confucius' writings; but it was to them evidently 
something as Virgil would be to an educated mer- 
chant at home— a school exercise which they never 
read now. 

The lower quarters of the Chinese were by no means 
so attractive. The introduction of abandoned women, 
, gamblers, opium-sellers, and liquor-dealers, together 
with the great crowding of the working population, are 
already producing in San Francisco what we know so 
well in New- York as " fever-nests,*" and centers of 
crime and poverty. The Chinese dens here ah-eady 
need some strict sanitary regulations and police in- 
terference. If it were not for these blessed winds, 
I am convinced they would have originated pesti- 
lence long since. This importation of lewd aoid dis- 
eased women, it seems to me, might be checked 
by some vigorous action of pubhc opinion on the ship- 
owners. The Pacific Mail would certainly never lend 
itself to such a disgusting branch of business. In 
these rounds we saw many children which would show 
that some of the working-men must have brought 
wives with them. Notwithstanding the few idle and 
lewd men to be seen in the low quarters, the great 



218 the'itew west. 

proportion were very busy; some were making ci- 
gars, others keeping groceries or meat-shops, and very 
many were going out to work in American manufac- 
tories. There were numerous Chinese laundries where 
American families have their washing done at a lower 
rate than white washerwomen can afford. The Chinese, 
it may be remarked, sprinkles his clothes by spitting 
water from his mouth. 

The employers of the Chinese laborers invariably 
agree that they are excellent workmen. They never 
have, like the whites, a Sunday spree and a ^^blue 
Monday." They are always ^^on hand" at the time 
agreed upon ; always sober and industrious. Now and 
then they have a difficulty with their native "bosses" 
(who manage their affairs with the American em- 
ployers), because there is "too much workee and too 
little payee ; " but this is soon set right, and they prove 
most trustworthy laborers. They soon learn to cook, 
and are good servants. I see that one of them in a 
mining town has been so successful recently as an as- 
sayer, and in subduing refractory ores, that the people, 
in their enthusiasm, propose to have him " naturalized " 
as an American citizen. 

Notwithstanding this low quarter and the vicious 
Chinese in it, I have no hesitation in saying that no- 
where in the world is there a more sober, neat, hard- 
working class of laborers than the Chinese of California. 

Still with all this, and much more that could be 
said in their favor, the problem about the Chinese 
in America is a most difficult one. Under our form 
of government we ought to have no race or class 



QUESTION OF THE BALLOT. 219 

which cannot be assimilated. Every class ought to 
have the power to protect itself by the ballot, the edu- 
cation and the sense of responsibility which it gives. 
But it is obviously most unwise to give the suffrage to the 
Chinese at present. They do not (generally) under- 
stand our language. They are entirely separated from 
us in all their ideas and habits. They probably possess 
the vaguest possible knowledge of our system of govern- 
ment, and they are a transient population. No one 
at present claims this right for them. And yet if 
their numbers increase, and they continue subject to 
the wrongs which oppress them now, the conscience 
of our people will be aroused, and the ballot will be 
claimed — and justly — for them, as their only protec- 
tion from tyranny and oppression. Besides, to have a 
great class of helots among us, outside of our popular 
Government, would never suit our system, and to in- 
clude them in our system might almost overturn it on 
this coast. 

In that golden moment, in which the whole question 
of suffrage for the South, and through the South for 
the country, was in effect settled by Congress for all 
coming time, had we set up intelligence as a test, we 
would have begun that direction in which no ignorant, 
debased or foreign under-class could ever hereafter 
give us any terrors. All the reasoning mind of 
the nation seemed to demand this test. But through 
one of those accidents which seem sometimes to 
determine the fate of nations, we took our drift, 
and henceforth in this current we must move, 
whether toward weal or woe. With intelligence as 



220 THE NEW WEST. 

a test of suffrage, the Chinese question could have 
been settled ultimately in California without danger. 
Now there seems no solution. The practical middle 
course, it seems to me, for the present, is at once to 
make the Chinese " equal before the law" with natives 
or whites — without justice no State is secure — and 
then seek by every legal and proper means to dis- 
courage immigration. There are, I suppose, 50,000 
Chinese* in this State or on its borders — that is, 
one-tenth of its population. This is quite enough of 
a transient, Asiatic, unrepublican people, to mingle in 
the community which is to build up the great Pacific 
Republic of future centuries. 

But if they cannot be prevented from coming with- 
out too odious exactions, then the christian States on 
the Pacific coast must accept the burden which Provi- 
dence has thrown upon them, of this pagan race, and do 
their best to elevate them. Thus far the experiment of 
christianizing the Chinese in California has been any- 
thing but a happy one. I am told by friends of the 
missionaries in China, that the influence of the re- 
turned Chinese is uniformly against Christianity. 
Their reasoning is, that if the doctrines of Christ bear 
such fruit as they have experienced in America, they 
prefer Confucius or Buddha. 

No doubt, however, they carry back many new 
ideas, and a respect for American energy and inven- 
tion. They learn the English language, also ; and I 
cannot doubt that as time goes on, and they are more 

* Tho number in San Francisco ranges from 1,000 to 6,000: in the State 
from 40,00 ) to 60,000 ; not increasing mucli. 



CHRISTIANITY FOE THE CHINESE. 221 

justly and kindlj treated, many Chinese will be 
brought to look carefully into the doctrines of Christi- 
anity, and thus supplement the truths and wonderfully 
humane principles of their great Teacher, and learn 
what he never taught — the sublime and ennobling 
truths and hopes of the Christian Faith. The influ- 
ence hereafter of this contact of the Orient and the 
West on our Pacific shores, we can but feebly ima- 
gine. Time alone can unfold it. But first of all, 
among a Christian people — '' Justice must be done.'' 
We append, as an illustration of the subject, 
extracts from a recent debate, in the California 
Legislature, on the question whether their " Criminal 
Practice Act" shall* be so amended as to allow 
Negroes, Chmamen and Mongolians to be witnesses 
against white men, y/hen an injury to their own per- 
sons or property is charged. 

The member from Placer County said : 

''We are now educating a class of robbers — boys and young men — 
who have a perfect disregard for the rights of others, because under 
the protection of the existing hiw they can commit assaults, and mur- 
der and rob, with perfect impunity. These robbers even talk of their 
deeds, and admit and boast of them without fear of being held to ac- 
count for them. This is because courts have held that other testi- 
mony, direct as to the commission of the crime, is necessary, beyond 
proof of the confessions of the criminals themselves. The fact that 
these men depend upon robberies for a livelihood is well understood, 
yet they go on without fear of punishment. There have been many 
men in Placer County, loafing around the mining towns for weeks at 
a time, idle, and without means of obtaining a livelihood, destitute of 
money, until on a certain morning they would be found to have plenty 
of money and at the same time the fact was everywhere known that 
there had been a robbery committed at the Chinese town in the vicin- 
ity. Men would say to them, ' Ah ! you have been down calling on 



222 THE NEW WEST. 

the Chinamen again/ and they would laugh, and not take the trouble 
to deny the insinuation — or admit it openly. The want of such law, 
apart from the losses of the Chinese, has cost Placer County, in futile 
efforts to punish crime, at least $10,000 during the past year. The 
Sheriff alone, out of his own pocket, has spent, in the last two years, 
at least $1,000, for which he has not been reimbursed, in efforts to 
punish this class of persons. He spoke of a recent case where they 
robbed, beat, and murdered Chinamen, and one of the robbers being 
caught by them, was now in jail, but likely to be discharged, 
' because none but Chinese testimony against him could be pro- 
cured.' ' ' 

Mr. Shaw said : 

" He had always been surprised at the difference of opinion among 
sensible men on this matter of testimony. The true principle would 
naturally seem to be to admit the testimony of any sane human being 
who could throw light upon the facts in question. But these contin- 
ual outrages upon the person and property of Chinamen were dis- 
graceful to our State and our civilization. Admit the truth of the 
charge made against them — that they are a nation of great liars — then 
they must, in giving their testimony, confront a jury imbued with 
this prejudice, not disposed to believe them unless their evidence is 
corroborated by circumstantial evidence, or otherwise. This preju- 
dice may go far to prevent the effect of false testiniony. English 
courts never refuse to swear Chinamen or any other nationality." 

Mr. Johnson, of El Dorado, said : 

" He knew that such a law was necessary, because the same sys- 
tem of robbery and oppression mentioned as existing in Placer Coun- 
ty, also existed in his own county." 

He also said: 

" That there was another point to which he wished to call at- 
tention ; it was that from robbing Chinamen to robbing white men 
the transition was very easy. He had acted as Judge in his own 
county, and therefore knew this fact, and alluded to several cases of 
murderers who had been arrested and convicted of killing white men, 
who commenced by robbing Chinamen, and were gradually embol- 
dened by the impunity with whic'i they had operated. Therefore, to 
protect our own people we must prevent this impunity for crimes 
against others. Whatever he might think as to the propriety of 



CHINESE TESTIMONY. 223 

limiting the political rights of such persons before the law, they 
should all stand equal as to the protection of their lives and property." 

I regret to say tliat though the amendment passed 
the Senate by a large majority, it was defeated in the 
Democratic House. 

The following comments which the writer made in 
a New York Journal, on this proceeding, may be re- 
peated here. " In other words, the State Assembly 
has put itself deliberately in the position that any white 
ruffian might plunder and murder any half dozen decent 
and honest Chinese laborers, and unless his deeds were 
seen by other white men, no court could convict him. 
We venture to say that no act in the code of the In- 
quisition, under Ai^BA, or in the old English system 
of legal injustice against the Irish, or the laws of the 
South toward the negro, was more barbarous, cruel, 
and stupid, than this provision of the California law of 
the nineteenth century. It has not the excuse of the 
Spanish Inquisition, of bigotry ; or of English tyranny, 
the pride of conquest ; or of Southern cruelty, the 
stem necessities of a system of forced labor. It is the 
pure stupidity of race and caste prejudice. 

^^ There never was a laboring class more harmless, 
industrious and respectable, than the Chinese working- 
men of the Pacific Coast. All testimony agrees that 
they are more reliable than the Irish laborers; 
that they keep their contracts excellently ; and that 
with their merchants "the word is as good as the 
bond." They are an absolute necessity to the materi- 
al development of California. Without them no rail- 
roads would be built or manufactures carried on, and 



224 THE ]^EW WEST. 

half of the grain and fruit production of the State 
would at once be cut off or never gathered. Every 
household depends on them, and few have cause to 
complain of their idleness or dishonesty or fickleness. 
To drive them out of the State by oppressive legisla- 
tion is like renewing the French edicts against the 
Huguenots/ or the Spanish toward the Moors. It is 
to banish the most economical and productive class 
in the State. And yet hardly a paper reaches us 
from the Pacific Coast without an account of some 
brutal and barbarous violence toward these unoff'ending 
foreigners by white rufiians. The Act in the Criminal 
Practice which it is sought to amend, is in reality an 
Act to encourage murder and robbery of Chinamen by 
Spanish or American thieves and cut-throats. And 
when one thinks what a Californian Avhite or brown 
ruffian is — the very scum of the proletaires of the 
earth, a man steeped in crime and often a refugee 
from justice, whose word would not be accepted by 
his own gang of murderous outcasts — and that his testi- 
mony is to be received, v/hile the oath of the decent, 
honest, hard-working Chinaman whom he has sought 
to murder, is to be rejected — we may judge what this 
step of Californian progress is. A State with such an 
act in its criminal code is not worthy to be called civ- 
ilized. Its civilization is but the flashy gilt over 
barbarism. 

" For the only argument which can be used against 
Chinese testimony, that this people do not believe in 
God, and therefore do not know the nature of an oath, 
is an argument already passed by modern progress, 



CHINESE TESTIMONY. 225 

wHcli holds that all testimony should be received and 
estimated by judge and jury for what it is worth. Be- 
sides, the Chinese have oaths or rites which are bind- 
ing on themselves, and which could be employed in 
our courts. 

"But whether CaHfornia chooses to abide by this 
code of barbarism and bigotry or not, we trust that it 
will be seen to be the duty of the new Chinese Am- 
bassador — Mr. BuELiNGAME — to protest, both in the 
name of humanity and of the Chinese Government, 
against the acts of atrocity which we hear of weekly 
from the Pacific coast, committed on imoffending 
Chinamen. Some protection ought to be afforded by 
international law to these oppressed foreigners, if 
State law will not afford it. And the public opinion 
of all just and right-minded men should be brought to 
bear promptly on a commimity which can sanction 
such cruelties and oppressions.'^ 

CHINESE THEATRE. 

I went, while in San Francisco, one evening to see 
the Chinese theatre. It corresponded in its general 
style to the sixpenny theatres of London, or the 
"Bowery" of New York; but it struck me, though 
of course knowing nothing of the language, that the 
acting was more lively and natural than in them. The 
first scenes were scarcely attended to. Every one 
smoked, even the actors, the band and the prompter ; 
the audience smoked incessantly and chatted together. 

The galleries were crowded Avith Avomen — I suppose 
10- 



226 THE NEW WEST. 

of doubtful character — ^but they were clean, well- 
dressed, and not immodest in manner. Everything 
was orderly, and the only disturbance was made by 
a white man insisting on sitting on the back of a 
bench, from which he was forcibly jerked down by a 
policeman. The band played a most monotonous 
ti?ig-tong through all the play, and some of the dia- 
logue seemed to be intended to be operatic. 

The second and third acts became more lively and 
manifestly began to attract the interest of the audi- 
ence. There were one or two passages of pantomime, 
or a sort of polite dialogue of manner, where one per- 
son tried to cut another, which were very well done. 
The principal character was evidently a sort of a 
clown, or a countryman ignorant of polite manners. 
He was brought up before a judge under certain ac- 
cusations, and instead of prostrating himself as the 
others did, he squatted on his hams, to the great in- 
dignation of the officials and the intense delight of the 
audience. 

The accent and manner of the judge were as 
thoroughly official and refined, in contrast with those 
of the bumpkin, as they would be on an English stage. 
After passing through various adventures, the country- 
man seems finally to be reconciled to his enemies and 
acquitted by the court. 

The last play created great excitement, and was, I 
was assured,part of a historical drama which runs on for 
months. There were processions of kings and queens, 
and warriors and governors, and soldiers and retainers, 
and fierce battles, and executions, and bastinadoes, 



CHINESE TEMPLE. 227 

ending in a tremendous confused finale^ which to us 
was incomprehensible. There seemed to be through- 
out, no female actors ; men acted the women's parts. 

On the whole, the Chinese show seemed to be quite 
up to the standard of the ^^ Sixpenny Gaff/' or the New 
York Bowery. 

I visited also the other extreme of Chinese sights, 
the Temple. It was by no means equal in its own ar- 
rangements to the theatre. The lower part of the 
building seemed occupied as a very inferior and 
miserable lodging-house, and even the outer courts of 
the Sanctum were invaded by cooking and prepara- 
tions, apparently for lodgers. The inner and sacred 
shrine was occupied by a hideous, nondescript Bud- 
dhist idol, with little candles burning before it, and 
various arms and bronzed ornaments scattered about 
it. The manner of the worshipers was anything but 
reverent. 

On one occasion, while traveling in a desolate 
mountain region, I was much impressed by the sad, 
lonely form of a Chinaman, walking pensively toward 
a solitary grave, and scattering little papers as he 
went. These, it seems, were his prayers to the 
spirit of his ancestors and to the departed. 

Again, lately, when a large party of Chinese set 
off in a steamer for China, the waters were covered 
with these bits of paper from the crowd on the dock — 
being prayers for their safe return home. 



228 THE NEW WEST. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

LARGE FARMING. 

I DROVE up recently to the doorway of a picturesque 
house, belcnging to one of that class perhaps peculiar 
to California — ^4he large farmers." The building, lilve 
very many in the country districts of the State, shows 
an effort toward an appropriate architecture. It is 
built of wood, painted brown 5 the roof-line is broken 
with sharp gables, and the front has a very broad 
verandah, ornamented with creeping vines ; the wings 
run out behind, inclosing a little fountain in a smaU 
square, into which the central hall opens under another 
rear verandah. In this climate, galleries or verandahs 
are an essential of life, and as bedrooms under the roof 
are not objectionable, the pointed gables and pictur- 
esque roof-forms can be adopted without difficulty. 
Much of the inside is finished with native woods, var- 
nished. Few on the eastern coast have any idea of the 
beauty of some of the native woods here. The State 
is unfortunately deficient in some of the moat useful 
w^oods, especially the oak and ash — so that the material 
for barrel-staves and wagon-frames has to be imported 
from our coast; but in ornamental varieties she has 
some exquisite specimens. The mansanitaj when pol- 
ished, has a deep red, with exquisite graining, more 
beautiful than mahogany. The laurel is one of the 



A cou:n^tiiy house. 229 

richest woods ever used for paneling, and the white 
oak is remarkably pretty, and even the red-wood or- 
naments a room nicely with its rich color. 

One may judge of California hospitality Avhen I say 
that almost my first salutation from the gentleman was, 
^' Well, you have come to spend a month, of course," 
and a riding horse was at my service every day, &c., &c. 

This property is within four hours of the city, and 
will soon be within two. It enjoys the coolness of the 
sea-breeze without the chill and dust of San Francisco 
winds. You have the sun of Italy and the temperature 
of an Enghsh summer ; seldom in winter a frost, and 
in summer a heat rarely above 80 degrees, and more 
generally about 70 degrees, with nights always cool. 
As a consequence, this gentleman^s garden will show a 
variety of vegetation, I believe, rarely seen anywhere 
else on earth. Think of an orchard where the olive 
grows by the side of the quince, and the almond near 
the barberry; where the fig and the grape flourish 
equally with the apple, the peach, and the cherry. 
His house is almost embowered in olives, and fig-trees, 
with trunks six inches thick, form groves about it, while 
long lines of almonds stretch away toward the rear. 
Behind it is a dense orchard of peach-trees. A small 
palm is flourishing in front, and a few rods off, in the 
kitchen garden, Indian com and peas and tomatoes. 
Such a combination of the best fruits and products of 
two zones is a wonderful spectacle. California is an 
elysium for the orchard-grower or tree-planter. Here 
is a splendid hedge ten feet high, of the ^' cherry-holly," 
planted from seed a lew years ago 5 here are orchards 



230 THE NEW WEST. 

bearing immense quantities of fruit, only five or six 
years old, and shade-trees from Australia, perhaps 
seven inches thick in trunk, set out from a shoot only 
two years since. 

A man sits under his o^vn grove in ten years, and 
gets his fruit in two or three. The most exquisite 
trees and growths are being introduced from Japan 
and Australia. You see in such grounds the beautiful 
Australian gum-trees {Eucalypti*) ^ with their singular 
variety of leaves on the same trunk, destined here- 
after, if they equal their Australian ancestors, to reach 
a growth of 250-300 feet, and a girth of 100. Japanese 
acacias and shrubs, with variegated leaves, also abound, 
and the symmetrical Norfolk Island pine, the Monterey 
cypress and pine, and the young giant Sequoitty be- 
ginning patiently his thousand years of growth. Every- 
thing grows here, the ivy as well as the Japanese 
honeysuckle. 

On the upper portion of this gentleman's garden a 
stream of water was turned, brought from the moun- 
tains, and occasionally ditches were unclosed, which 
carried it among the strawberries and vegetables, and 
along the roots of the fruit-trees, in a rough kind of 
surface-irrigation. All that California gardening wants 
is water, and then the sun does the rest. On every 
farm you see either the wind-mill or the artesian well^ 
to carry to it the great necessity. There is arising, 
however, a considerable difference of opinion among 

* If I recollect right, there were ovate leaves and narrow lanceolate leaves 
on the same tree. Could it be a cross of the U. risdoni and K cocci/era ? or 
was it simply the diflferent age of different pai-ts of the tree? 



A CALIFORNIA FAEM. 231 

horticulturists about the extent to which irrigation is 
necessary. The best vineyards do not use it, and it 
is said shade-trees are made shallow-rooted by too 
much of it. 

The farm aroimd the house is a sight to behold, 
and one which begins to implant in a stranger^s mind 
some adequate idea of the immense resources of Cal- 
ifornia. Away over the plain, down the slopes of the 
ravines, over the hills opposite and into the valleys 
beyond, stretched the rich golden grain, acre after 
acre of such product as the w^orld scarcely ever saw — 
long, full ears, with dry, glutinous grains and grace- 
fully bending stalks j not a weed or a tree appear to 
disturb the view, except sometimes the wild mustard 
(itself a profitable harvest) scattered in portions of it. 
In parts the harvest has been cut, and thick, regular 
bundles of sheaves, like crowded encampments, dot 
the hills and vales as far as the eye can reach. In 
some places the product will reach sixty bushels to 
the acre ; in one field of two hundred acres, it will be 
fifty bushels. In one quarter, the gentleman has 
taken eighty-seven bushels per acre from 200 acres. 
The whole farm will average over thirty-three bush- 
els, and this gentleman will reap GO, 000 bushels this 
year. The wild-mustard seed in the wheat pays the 
whole cost of threshing ! He has sixty men at work, 
of whom forty are Chinese, and he is harvesting from 
about sixty acres a day. The machine used is the 
ordinary " header " of the country, which cuts the 
heads of the grain and throws them into a large cart, 
looking like a moving house driven by the side of it* 



233 THE NEW WEST. 

There does not seem as mucli saving of labor in it as 
might be expected. ~ 

The Chinese are paid $1.50 (gold) a day and 
board, and prove excellent workmen ; ordinary hands 
for light work receive $1.00 to $1.50 a day without 
rations. The scale of operations may be judged, 
when it is mentioned that the sacks alone for the 
wheat will cost this farmer $5,000. 

I was shown in one field a unique sight, a ^^ volun- 
teer crop " of wheat, which had sprung of itself in a 
field imbroken and uncultivated, from last year's scat- 
tered seeds, so rich that it would probably average 
forty to forty -five bushels to the acre. My friends 
said that they had kno^vn barley even in the third year 
of a volunteer crop reach forty-five bushels, where 
not a touch of hmnan labor had been put upon it. Let 
it be remembered that the average yield, even of the 
West, in wheat, is only fifteen bushels to the acre, and 
one can understand what a soil and climate this is. 

In one year (1852) this gentleman states that he 
harvested 700 bushels of potatoes to the acre from a 
field of 20 acres. 

The threshing of the wheat is done entirely by 
steam. The machines go around frooi farm to farm 
and thresh about 900 bushels a day. The thresher 
gets $40 per day, and the cost is about 9 cents a 
bushel. The profit on wheat is about $15 an acre 
here ; and the cost of planting, cultivating, reaping 
and sacks, will reach $15 (not including rent). 

During my visit, we took a drive through the Liv- 
vermore Valley. This was an agricultural sight such 



A WHEAT VALLEY. 233 

as no other country can present. Think of 10,000 
acres of tall golden wheat without a tree, or hedge, 
or fence, extending its yellow waving surface as far as 
the eye could reach, and averaging seventy bushels to 
the acre — four hundred thousand bushels in this petty 
valley, of which no one ever heard. And five years 
ago, no one thought this land was worth cultivating, 
and it coidd have been bought for $5 an acre — now 
it is worth $100. 

When my friend first came here, he had Avisdora 
enough to see that the great wealth of California was 
not in its gold-mines, but in the soil. 

Like most early Californians, he brought v/ith him 
but a few doUars, and left heavy debts behind him in 
the East. All the new comers were rushinir to 
the mines, but he hired a vegetable garden, for $5,000 
for five years, from a Spanish Mission, and made 
twenty thousand dollars year after year. There was 
barren-looldng land lying around the Mission which 
no one would cidtivate, and the owners of ranches in 
what is now probably the most productive soil in the 
world, used to come to the neighborhood of the Mis- 
sion to plant a few vegetables, where they could enjoy 
the blessings of the priests — not believing that the 
outside soil could yield anything. Mr. A. bouo-ht 
some of this 5 and hearing that there would be a 
dearth of potatoes, he planted them, paying enor- 
mously for everything : $250 a month for a common 
laborer, for instance, and eight cents a pound for 
freight from San Francisco. But the next year he 
made two hundred thousand dollars from his potatoesc 



234 THE NEW WEST. 

The year after^ however, there was such a harvest of 
potatoes through the State^ that it did not pay to take 
them from the ground^ and he lost fifty thousand dol- 
lars ! He went on then experimenting on a gigantic 
scale ; at one time owning the whole country-side ; and 
once^ he spent $18,000 introducing apples, and lost it 
all ; at other times he lost still more heavily. He is now 
prosperous and a large farmer, and widely known for 
his warm-hearted hospitality. Though his ranche is 
some 4,000 acres, there are ranches to which his is 
a mere inclosure. I hear of one, near the city, whose 
boundary line, if you stand in the center, is the horizon. 
Those in Los Angeles County are immense. It is for- 
tunate for the interests of the State, that these immense 
properties are becoming rapidly broken up. With 
modern combination in the use of machinery, a large 
farmer cannot use costly contrivances for saving la- 
bor more than a small one. His only advantage and 
benefit to the community is, that he can try experi- 
ments more. But the Californians have such restless 
and inventive minds, and are a community of such 
wealth, that even the poorest landowners will always 
be experimenting on somft ^ew productions. The im- 
mensely superior value o ■ small farmers, or free- 
holders, over large, for the moral and political- 
well-being of a community, needs no argument in 
America. 

Among Mr. A.'s various crops was one of almonds. 
This tree, he reckons, yields twenty pounds to the tree 
in seven years ; the profit is about $2.00 to a tree. 
The j^^5 give twenty pounds to the tree in fourteen 



FIGS AND OLIVES. 285 

years. They seem to me, both dry and green, quite 
equal to the best foreign. They command good prices 
in the market. His olives looked well, and they are 
now erecting olive-presses in various places to press 
California olive oil, which is said to be quite equal to 
any foreign oil. 

But the delicious fruits were the peaches, plums, and 
nectarines. The trees hung heavy with the crops of 
them. There were all our best varieties, and fully equal, 
if not surpassing ours in richness and delicate flavor. 
It is a mistake to suppose that the California fruits are 
inferior to those of the Eastern States. The only one 
of poor flavor is the apple, which has suffered much 
from an insect. The strawberries, blackberries, rasp- 
berries, and cherries, are also quite equal to those of 
our coast. I used to spend hours in these orchards, 
luxuriating on the delicious fruit. Unfortunately for 
the grower, these fruits have become so plentiful in 
California, as hardly to pay for raising. Still I was 
pointed out, in this neighborhood, a clergyman's gar- 
den which added some $3,000 per annum to his 
meagre salary. 

Flax is also beginning to be grown in this county. 
My friend raised 1,300 pounds of seed on the acre in 
one field. It must become eventually a very profit- 
able crop. The importance of it may be judged from 
the fact, that in 1866, there was a call for over 
9,000,000 sacks for wheat, which were imported at 
a cost of $1,500,000. The total crop of seed is esti- 
mated now at about 150 tons. There is said to be a 
market for over 1,000 tons annually for oil purposes. 



236 THE NEW WEST. 

The raising of Hops also is increasing. There is 
no doubt that the yield is much larger^ and the 
quality better, than on the eastern coast. The beer 
made from it is far superior to ours. They mention 
instances where 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of cured hops 
have been raised to the acre. I heard of one farmer 
in Sacramento, who made, from hops, $1,000 per acre 
this year. The dry climate, free from storms, with a 
succession of southwest winds, warm genial sun, and 
copious dews at night, is singularly favorable to this 
growth. The pests of European hop-growers, such as 
the avhiSj hop-mouse, mould-blight, and various para- 
sites, never trouble the Californian. The low lands 
along the river-bottoms (not the adoho soils), with de^ep 
rich loam and porous subsoil, are the best lands for it. 
But even on the uplands, 1,500 pounds of dried hops 
to the acre are not uncommon. 

The picking is done by Indians or Chinese, at $1.00 
per day, without rations. The usual price is 25 cents 
to 35 cents per pound ; they have been as high as 85 
cents. Instances are given of hops four inches in 
length being obtained the first summer after plant- 
ing. The total crop is now 200,912 pounds, from 313 
acres. 

Many of my agricultural friends believe that the 
Tule swamps about the mouths of the California rivers 
will eventually become rice-fields. The climate, hovv'- 
ever, is probably too cool for the growth of this valu- 
able product. 

Improvements in breeds become a source of im- 
mense profit in California. I passed in this neighbor- 



MEKIi^O SHEEP. 237 

hood a sheep-farm whose owner had imported seven- 
teen ewes and two or three rams of merinos, which 
had cost him $7,000 ; he derived from them a 
steady income of some $5,000 a year. One sheep- 
raiser in Alameda Comity has over 1,500 head of 
thorough-bred merinos. It is estimated that there are 
at the present time 2,500,000 sheep in the State, 
producing about 12,500,000 pounds of wool annually. 
In 1856 the clip was only 600,000 pounds. 

The following is an account from the Evening Bul- 
letin of 

THE CASHMERE GOAT AND COTSWOLD SHEEP IN CALIFORNIA. 

" The Cashmere goat was first imported from Angora, in Asia Minor, 
to the United States, as early as 1846. In the fall of 18i31, W. Lan- 
drum obtained two bucks from a grower in the State of Georgia, and 
brought them into this State. In the fall of 18 J7, Messrs. Landrum, 
Butterfield & Co. imported eightj^-four bucks and four does into this 
State, direct from Angora. They were driven 900 miles to Con- 
stantinople, and from thence were shipped to Boston, and thence to 
California. They were taken to Monterey County. The result in 
the growth of the pure bloods, and also in the cross with the com- 
mon California goat, has far exceeded the most sanguine expectations 
of those engaged in the business. The growers have on hand, by 
crossing, about 1,500, including those of pure blood. They have 
also on hand 100 or more bucks for sale, containing three-fourths, 
seven-eights, and fifteen-sixteenths of pure blood. Beside these, they 
have sold upward of 100 of different grades to parties who have en- 
gaged in growing the Cashmere wool. It is noteworthy that the 
fiber of the wool, Avith rare exceptions, becomes pure white from 
crossing the first cross with a black ; and the second cross gives a 
fiber sufficiently fine for valuable purposes. The fourth cross pro- 
duces a fiber nearly as soft and fine as the pure blood. The only dif- 
ference really perceptible is. that the fleece is not quite so heavy. 
The weight of the fleece of the pure blood ranges from four to ten 
pounds. As yet, the Cashmere wool in this State can not be said to 



238 THE KEW WEST. 

have any fixed price, as at present there is no demand. At the East, 
where a demand exists, the manufacturers informed Messrs. Landrum 
& Co. that they ' had paid as high as from one to sixteen dollars per 
pound, the average price being from two to three dollars per pound. 

''Messrs. Landrum & Butterfield have five pelts of Cashmere wool, 
two pure and three graded, in ' Quincy Hall ' Clothing Emporium, 
on Washington street, near Montgomery, where those interested in 
the growth of Cashmere wool, or wishing to verify the facts above 
stated, can inspect the fleeces for themselves, and can obtain further 
information from Thomas Butterfield. who is now stopping at the 
Kuss House, or by addressing him at Santa Cruz. Ii should, per- 
haps, for the benefit of wool-growers in this State, be further stated, 
that the Angora goat seems to be as hardy as the common goat, feed- 
ing on the most poisonous weeds with impunity, and to be free from 
the diseases to which sheep are liable The foregoing results may be 
taken as a practical demonstration that the growing the Cashmere 
wool, at no distant day is to become an important branch of industry 
in this State, and indeed on the whole Pacific coast. 

"Messrs. Landrum & Butterfield are also engaged in the importa- 
ti<m and growing of the Cotsvvold sheep. One of them is now in Can- 
ada, and is expected to arrive here some time in August, with fifty or 
more full-blooded Cotswold to increase their stock, and to supply 
those who may wish to purchase to cross or improve their flocks. 
The fiber of the Cotswold is more valuable, and the fleece heavier, 
than those of any other sheep. The weight of the carcass is double 
that of the common sheep, and the mutton of a finer quality — being 
only equaled by that of the Southdown, while they are more prolific." 

WHEAT-GROWING COUNTIES. 

From the wheat yield of California for 1866, of 
14,000,000 bushels, ninety-five percent, was furnished 
by eighteen counties, as follows: 

COUNTIES- BUSHELS. 

Alameda 1.091,760 

Butte 231,041 

Contra Costa 020,110 

Marin 92,328 

Mendocino 180,000 

Monterey 184,550 



WHEAT COUNTIES. 239 

COUNTIES. PUSHELS. 

Napa 624,435 

Sacramento 192,170 

San Joaquin 1,1391'1 

San Mateo 420,000 

Santa Clara 3,506,000 

Santa Cruz 244 ,577 

Solano 2,117,250 

Sonoma 581 ,241 

Stanislaus 150,662 

Sutter 269 050 

Tehama 270,035 

Yolo 1,446,579 

Total 13,361,699 

Other 32 counties 719,053 

Total wheat crop in 1866 14,080,752 

This wheat district lies within a semicircle of 120 
miles, taking San Francisco as the initial point, in 
counties either on the bay, the ocean, or the San Joa- 
quin and Sacramento Rivers. 

The wheat-growing area of the State was as fol- 
lows during the last three years : 



# 



ACRES UNDER WHEAT CULTIVATION. 

COUNTIES. 1865. 1866. 1867. 

Alameda 40,051 38,792 53,190 

Butte 19,975 21,919 19,070 

Contra Costa 28,615 39,718 43,501 

Marin 3,260 3,567 4,291 

Mendocino 6,500 11,000 12,000 

Monterey 3,283 4,983 5,700 

Napa 31,156 29,735 37,405 

Sacramento 10,142 9,870 5,400 

San Joaquin 47,558 69,132 91,790 

San Mateo 16,000 20,000 16,000 

Santa Clara 93,000 109,000 150,000 

* Evening Bulletin. 



240 THE NEW WEST. 

COUNTIES. 1865. 1865. 1867. 

Santa Cruz 6,179 9,629 9 710 

Solano 55,500 141,150 160,000 

Sonoma 30,465 35,023 27,943 

Stanislaus 10,000 11,190 32 250 

Sutter 10,640 15,732 21,730 

Tehama 7,832 13,424 14,S62 

Yolo 20,282 47,705 62,877 

Total 440,438 631,569 747,719 

Other 32 counties 41,034 59,176 98,d58 

Total for State. ... 481,472 69i),475 G84 376 

"Assuming that these figures (which are taken 
from the Surveyor-General's Eeport) are approxi- 
mately correct, we find that of the strictly wheat- 
producing counties, the land under cultivation with 
this cereal, in 1866, was forty- three per cent, greater 
than in 1865, while that of 1867 was eighteen per 
cent, greater than in 1866, an increase for 1867 as 
against 1865 of about seventy per cent. Extending 
the comparison so as to cover the whole State, there 
was forty-three per cent, more land under wheat 
cultivation in 1866 than in 1865, and twenty-two per 
cent, more in 1867 than in 1866, or an increase of 
about seventy-six per cent, in two years." 

The greatest wheat-producing counties are just 
around the Bay — eight of them producing, in 1866, 
0,053,124 bushels, against 3,144,376 in 1860. Wheat 
does not do well south of Monterey. It is esti- 
mated that 150,000 acres of new land were put in 
wheat during 1868, and at least 20,000,000 bushels 
produced. The yield of wheat to the acre was for- 
merly wonderful in California. Fields of sixty to one 
hundred acres have averaged ninety to one hun- 



YIELD PER ACRE. 241 

dred bushels, and choice sites as high as one hundred 
and twenty. Wherever the land is properly sown 
and cultivated, the yield will now average forty bush- 
els. But here, as elsewhere in the United States, 
there is a great deal of poor farming. The lands 
receive neither rest nor manure, and even the straw 
is burned. What with volunteer crops, and cattle 
turned in to feed, many farms are almost ruined. 
Some farmers are beginning now to crop one year 
and summer-fallow the next. By this means an aver- 
age yield of twenty bushels is soon raised to forty. 

The truth is, such is the improvident habit of the 
people, that these magnificent grain-fields, which might 
be the granary of the world, are being rapidly re- 
duced to the condition of the Virginia tobacco-fields. 
Every year the organic materials of the soil are 
burnt up in the straw and dissipated. There is little 
economy shown anywhere, and the yield in many 
districts has been brought down to twenty bushels. 
There is an imminent danger that extravagance and 
waste may desolate the California wheat lands, as 
they have the gold lands. 

The most successful varieties of wheat are the 
White Australian, White and Red ChiH, Chili Club- 
Wheat, and Sonora. The flour is said to be stronger 
from these than our ^^ Eastern" wheat. The charac- 
teristics of the California wheat are its dryness and 
hardness, so that the grain requires to be dampened 
before it can be profitably ground. These qualities 
peculiarly fit it for transportation. Our millers, how- 
ever, do not, evidently, understand the grinding it. 
11 



242 THE ITEW WEST. 

I find the California flour in New York often very 
yellow and inferior in quality, while here it is white 
as snow and of the best quality. 

Owing to the floods in some districts, the wheat 
crop is harvested in some parts of California while 
it is seed-time in others. 

BARLEY. 

The great crop of the State, next to wheat, and 
the common feed for animals, is barley, which will 
average, on new land, 55 to 60 bushels to the acre j 
it has averaged as high as 80 to 130 bushels , and a 
field of 100 acres, in Pajaro VaUey, is reported to 
have produced, in 1854, 133f bushels to the acre, of 
clean plump grain. The yield for the State is nearly 
the same as that of wheat. 

Oats grow well in California, but are not in great 
demand. 

Indian Corn does not do well generaUy, as on the 
lands liable to overflow (such as most of the river-bottoms) 
the ground is still covered with water in May ; this 
makes the planting late, and the autumn rains set in 
before the grain is matured, and the yield is thus light 
and poor. The best com lands are in the Russian 
River Valley (Sonoma County). 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE GEYSEES GRIZZLY BEARS. 

The various excursions through the Bay of San 
Francisco are remarkably beautiful. The trip to the 
Geysers — one of the regular objects of sight-seeing 
in the State — can be made either by Napa or Peta- 
luma. We chose the former route, and enjoyed the 
steamboat sail extremely. Napa Valley is one of 
the prettiest valleys in the State. In the springy the 
drive is as if through a park, the green fields being 
sprinkled almost artistically with a variety of ever- 
green oaks (Q. sonomensis)j which look like the elm. 
The hill-sides, and even the intervale, are green Y>dth 
vineyards, or covered with thrifty wheat. On each 
side of the narrow valley are wooded, roimded hills, 
very pretty in outline. Even at this season (July), 
with the dust lying six inches deep in the roads, and 
the fields as bro^vn as stubble-fields^ it was a lovely 
drive. 

We stopped at several watering-places. As I said 
before, there is something almost pathetic in the im- 
mense efforts made to render these places attractive. 

The White Sulphur Spring is somewhat romantic 
in situation, but Calistoga consists of a group of little 
houses, with a bare common in the midst, on which 



244 THE NEW WEST. 

some scanty shrubbery was growing^ a great warm- 
water bathing-basin^ and a long low hotel. Large 
sums had been laid out on it. But nothing could be 
less interesting or agreeable. The thermometer at 
both these rural resorts remained at from 100'^ to lOS'^ 
while we were in the neighborhood. The heat is, 
perhaps, an attraction to San Franciscans, as one ob- 
jection to their own climate, they say, is that they can 
never get up a perspiration. 

By a very early start, we reach Voss' Station for 
breakfast, expecting, according to advertisement, to 
connect with the ^^world-renowned Voss' team." But 
the world-renoAvned had fallen out with the Calistoga 
people, and had driven off to the Geysers early. So 
we were left to spend the day at this interesting sta- 
tion, which is a kind of focus of a reverberating fur- 
nace of hills, with a view into a barn-yard and over 
some brown fields. 

In observing the traveling company one meets with 
on these journeys, I am struck with one fact — that 
the least gentlemanly persons you meet are for- 
eigners — especially the English. The American or 
Irish Califomian is extremely polite to ladies — 
truly attentive, though perhaps a shade too familiar; 
but your young English or French Californian treats a 
lady almost as familiarly as he would a man, and I 
fancy he puts on a freedom to which he is not accus- 
tomed, and the resulting effect is not happy. One of 
the greatest civilizing agencies in America, is our re- 
spect for woman, and the women of this coast ought 
not merely to receive it, but to claim it ; and any young 



WANT OF GRUMBLING. 215 

foreign prig, who tries to ignore it, should be quietly 
taught his mistake. There is one peculiarity here 
which belongs to all our people ; it originated with the 
frontier, and has been transplanted to our cosmopoli- 
tan cities — ^no one ever grumbles at public accommo- 
dations. In a new country you must be very con- 
siderate of your neighbor, whether he be stage-driver 
or bar-keeper ; if he impose shockingly on you, you 
must bear it in silence. The consequence is, there is 
no public criticism on public arrangements. The 
only corrective is competition. I am of opinion that 
a little more ill-natured and wholesome scolding on 
these matters, especially in our Eastern States, would 
produce a good effect. Here, as a general thing, the 
country inns or hotels on traveled routes are excellent. 
But now and then, there is a thorough-going flashy 
California house, with a most elaborate and preten- 
tious outside, and all the necessary things inside 
neglected ; dirty beds, poor ware, bad bread, and 
greasy cooking. Such exceptions Avould be speedily 
put an end to by vigorous grumbling ; but no one 
ever says a word in public against them. 

Voss^ Station, however, was not of this class. 
Small as it was, it was neat and well managed. 

The drive over to the Geysers was very interest- 
ing; in part being just upon the very ridge of a 
sharp mountain, the steep sides covered with chap- 
paral coming up on each side to the very edge of 
the road. There were some fine views of mountain 
scenery on the route. We drove down the descent 
to the Geyser Hotel in the most reckless manner. 



246 THE ITEW WEST. 

making tlie two miles in about nine minutes^ and 
swinging the wagon around the zigzags with a tre- 
mendous speed ; but the ground is soft, and the wheels 
could not easily get over the edge of the road. Still, 
as is well known, there are constant accidents in Cali- 
fornia from reckless stage-driving. In one j)art of 
our route, we saw a plain trail of bears^ which crossed 
the public road. 



One cannot help acquiring a kind of respect for 
this animal from the stories one continually hears 
about him in California. I believe, without excep- 
tion, he is the most formidable animal that walks the 
earth. Think of a creature, weighing 1,800 pounds, 
that can run as fast as a horse, and with a strength 
that would crush a lion as if he were a squirrel, and 
with such masses of muscle and fat over his vital organs, 
that it is exceedingly difficult to shoot him. I find very 
few hunters who have ever even ventured to hunt one. 
It is said that no grizzly ever attacks a Digger, or a 
Digger Indian him ; they mutually avoid each other's 
company. It is so with all ordinary hunters. The bear 
seldom attacks a human being unless wounded, or unless 
it is a dam with young. Yet I see in the papers con- 
stant accounts of terrible encounters with them, in 
which frequently the human side does not come off the 
best. One young hunter, I heard of recently, who saved 
liimsclf after having wounded a bear, by throwing 
himself on his face and covering the back of his head 
with his hands. This is a common maneuver : the 



BEAES. 247 

bear supposes liis enemy dead, and gives him one or 
two hard blows and leaves him. I saw a wood- 
man in Calaveras, with his eye gone, and much scar- 
red, who had been obliged to fight a grizzly w^ith a 
pocket-knife, and Jcilled Mm, He was almost torn 
to pieces, but recovered. One dare-devil feat is, to 
crawl laboriously into a narrow beards-trail in a chap- 
paral thicket, where there can be no retreat, and 
shoot the grizzly in his den. 

The weapon the bear is most afraid of, is the las- 
so, or reata. He can do nothing against it. I have 
known one of the wild Spanish riders to capture 
twenty in a season with this singular implement. 
They are also trapped often in little houses, and then 
transferred to cages. It was thus that Adams caught 
his magnificent collection. They do a great deal of 
damage. On this very journey I heard of one ranch 
that had lost a hundred horses through one. 

Among the Sierras, the traveler on horseback 
need apprehend little danger from them ; and a foot- 
traveler has more to fear from wild cattle than bears. 

I am often much struck with the vivid use of new 
English words in California. I was discussing with a 
man in the stage-coach some question of morals. '^ The 
first thing for a man,'^ he said, " is to live true to his 
convictions ; if he doesn't do that, he had better sell 
out ; tJwre^s no pay-roch in lihn ! ''"' Another — a cler- 
gyman of much esprit — I heard speak lately in a ser- 
mon, of " the hard-pan of character — the hed-roch of 
the man," as if in every man, beneath the detritus 



248 THE KEW WEST. 

of habits, and the drift of conventionalities, and the 
loose deposits and accumulations of customs and ex- 
ternals, there was a foundation — a '^ bed-rock '^ — of 
essential character, against which you must strike if 
you would reach him. 

To corral a stock is to get the stock into your 
hands — to '^ corner^' it, as we would say. To 
^^ freeze out '^ stockholders, is an operation I have al- 
ready explained ; and ^^ salting ^' a mine is a trick 
also described heretofore 

The Geyser Hotel is a plain wooden house, near 
the foot of the Devil's Can on, which is the great ob- 
ject of interest to travelers. The landlord made up, 
by good nature and liveliness, for any want of accom- 
modations which might be felt. 

The interest of the spot lies in the fact that here 
may be witnessed the last spent forces of the great 
volcanic action which once shaped all this coast. One 
can well believe that the Indians found the Devil's 
Canon a most infernal place, and carefully avoided it. 
Our party climbed to the hill above, became rather 
belated, and then descended it almost in darkness. It 
is a small ravine, filled with sulphurous mist, where 
the ground is hot and quaking, and there is a sound 
of continual puffing engines beneath your feet. Some 
of the party became quite confused with the sulphur- 
ous odor and noise, and feared every instant breaking 
through the hot clods into the fiery depths below, or 
stepping into some boiling spring. With some of the 
Geysers there was such a force of steam as to be 



THE GEYSERS. 249 

heard at a considerable distance, and to suggest to 
our enterprising landlord the device of putting a 
steam-whistle over the vent, but, for some reason, 
the contrivance did not work. An egg was boiled in 
three minutes in one ; another, called the Devil's Ink 
Bottle, boiled over with genuine ink, with which a 
letter was afterward written. The ground was cov- 
ered with salts of sulphur, of alum, and charged with 
various acids, which destroyed our boots in a few 
minutes. The water was highly charged with sul- 
phuretted hydrogen and sulphurous acid, and many 
salts, such as sulphates of iron, lime, and magnesia. 
There was a species of grass growing in the water, 
though its temperature was at 200 degrees.* 

The explanation of these phenomena made in the 
Geological Survey, and the ordinary theory in books 
of science, of similar phenomena, seems sufficient. 
Somewhere above, in the Sierras, water comes in con- 
tact with heated lava in some volcano which does not 
now discharge, or some interior lake of lava, and 
being formed into steam it is forced out by the pres- 
sure, through crevices, until, as steam and hot water, it 
reaches the stream of this cafion, and finds a vent for 
itself in these geysers. Hot water, under pressure, 
dissolves metallic sulphurets, especially sulphuret of 
iron, and these solutions it brings down from the 
rocks to this stream. The ink mentioned above is a 
sulphuret of iron. I am told by residents that the 
volcanic action is sometimes shown here by quakings 
of the earth and rumblings. The line of former ac- 

* state Geological Sui-vey. 
11» 



250 THE NEW WEST. 

tion is clearly made evident in the mountains by 
great accumulations of pumice, scoriae, obsidian and 
volcanic slag. The surrounding rocks here, however, 
are metamorphic sandstones and silicious slates. This 
canon opens into the cafion of Pluton river, which is a 
branch of Eussian river; it is said to be 1700 feet 
above the sea. Four miles up are other geysers, 
some 2,200 feet in elevation. 

The DeviFs Cafion is a furnace of heat in the day, 
both from the sun and the ground. The hotel itself 
was one of the hottest places I ever visited. Alto- 
gether the excursion is hardly worth the trouble taken 
to make it. 

The journey back took us through a part of the 
Russian River Valley — yet to be one of the great 
wheat valleys of California — and out by the Peta- 
luma Valley. 

All these fine agricultural districts are to be opened 
soon by railways to Vallejo, where wheat and wine 
can be at once put aboard ships in deep water. This 
town must become a very important entrepot. 

THE CAPACITIES OF NAPA VALLEY. 

This beautiful valley we have just driven through, 
will be a favorite with emigrants from the eastern 
coast, on account of the cheapness of its lands and 
its nearness to market. It is not equal to the famous 
wheat counties, such as Santa Clara and Solano, and 
others, in the amount of its yield, but it is more regu- 
lar, there being few high lands which yield nothing 
in a very dry season, or very low lands which are 



KAPA VALLEY. 251 

destroyed "by a too wet year. Almost every acre 
of it, except those near the sulphur sprmgs, can pro- 
duce grain, and the adobe land in the centre has very 
fair crops. 

The lower end, from Suscol to Napa, has luxuriant 
crops, and the upper looks well. One farm we passed 
had been let out under the expectation that at thirty 
bushels to the acre, and with wheat at SI. 50 per 
cental, the lessee would make a net profit of $6.50 
per acre. The yield, however, turned out forty 
bushels, and the profit netted was $10 per acre. 
Land at the upper end of the valley has been held 
cheap, though next year it will all be within three 
miles of the railroad. One farm last year was ofi*ered 
at $25 per acre, and is worth now double. 

There are a number of valleys opening into the 
head of Napa, and all more or less good grain dis- 
tricts — the Loconoma, Coyota, and Knight's valleys. 
The Russian River Valley is thirty miles long and 
about five miles wide ; its average yield is between 
twenty and thirty bushels, though sometimes rising to 
forty bushels. 

In Napa Valley there are said to be from 1,000 to 
2,000 acres in vines. No good wine, so far as I saw, 
had been produced there. 

THE STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 

I have quoted often in this volume from what may 
be called the geological memoranda of Prof. Whitney 
and his corps, contained in the volume on ^^ Geology,'' 
which are the only trusta^vorthy sources of information 



252 THE ^NK^Y WEST. 

in regard to the geology and topography of Cali- 
fornia. Prof. Whitney's geological survey has been, 
of course^ honest, scientific, and so far as it extended, 
thorough, and will constitute a most valuable basis 
for scientific theories and practical invcotigations. 
The volumes, papers, and maps, also, which have 
been furnished, or will soon appear, from himself and 
his able assistants, are of immense value to science. 

The survey has been summarily broken oif by the 
California Legislature, leaving, we believe. Prof. 
Whitney in debt for these public services, he having 
sacrificed, with a noble devotion to science, something 
of his private fortune in the survey. For the credit 
of the State it ought to be resumed and thoroughly 
carried out. 



CHAPTER XX. 

WINE-GROWING. 

There is nothing that California needs so much iii 
developing her material resources as a little truth- 
speaking. Every one here uses the language of com- 
pliment about whatever is Californian. Every trav- 
eler or stranger arriving here, falls into the customary 
style of praise about the wonderful resources of this 
State, and the result is, that in some branches, the 
people do not really know what success is, until the un- 
mistakable lessons of the market, or the statistics of 
trade, teach them. This has been remarkably true of 
the vineyard interest. Most of the vineyards are cul- 
tivated by small vine-growers, who have seldom or ever 
tasted good wine, and who imagine their own the very 
best wine in the world. Travelers who write about 
the country, and journalists and horticultural writers, 
all agree to flatter and compliment this important 
branch of culture. Thus Mr. Hyatt, who has written 
an excellent work on the Californian grape culture, 
speaks of the ^^ innate fine qualities and delicious aro- 
ma which characterize our pure wines.'^ A promi- 
nent New York journal also says : ^^ To persons whose 
tastes have been perverted by fiery, vitiated com- 
pounds, which pass in the market for foreign wines, 
these pure California juices seem at first rather v/eak, 
and their delicate aromas and flavors fail of apprecia- 
tion ; but all natural, healthy tastes find in them the 
requisites of a perfect wine,'' &c., &c. 

Mr. Shaw, an English authority on vine-culture, 



254 THE NEW WEST. 

reports that ^^ the wines of California offer a fair com- 
parison with those of Europe.^' This is the general 
tone of the newspapers and agricultural papers of 
the State, whereas those who are behind the scenes, 
the large vine-growers and others, know that the re- 
verse of all this is true ; that, in generalj the California 
wines have not a delicious aroma — that thej are by no 
means ^Sveak." On the contrary, their proportion 
of alcohol is the difficulty, and they do not at all 
compare favorably with the good or light table-wines 
of France, Germany, or Hungary. In fact, on a 
broad scale, the wine-making of California has been a 
failure. The best evidence is in the table of exports. 
With a climate universally admitted to be the best 
adapted for grape-growing in the world — far surpass- 
ing that of France or Germany — California was only 
able, out of a product of some 3,000,000 of gallons, 
to export, in the last six months of 1867, a paltry 
$63,000 worth, and this was $30,000 Jess than in the 
same period of 1866. The price, too, in many districts, 
has reached the low point of 25 cents per gallon, or at 
the rate of 5 cents per bottle, while French claret 
commands its 50 cents to $1.50 per bottle. In other 
places, so small is the demand, it must be converted 
into brandy to find any sale for it. Even the last 
report of the Department of Agriculture in Washing- 
ton, which was expected to say everything complimen- 
tary, spoke thus in regard to Californian wines which 
had been analyzed: ^^ Whatever may be the cause, it 
seemed unjust to pronounce an opinion upon the mer- 
its of wines which were plainly unfit for drinking.^' 



POOE WINES. 255 

The Committee of the State Agricultural Society 
thus report, with most honorable frankness, on the 
wines offered to them, in 1868 : 

" The Committee would state that they have, in several cases, reject- 
ed wines of certain vintages on account of imperfect condition. They 
considered it was not tlie intention of the Society to award pre- 
miums to sour or adulterated wines, which would only perpetuate a 
practice of deceiving the public. They regret to state that the exhibit 
in the Class they were appointed to judge, was most meagre and in- 
sufficient for the magnitude of the interests they represented. In 
wines, in particular, the exhibit was most disgraceful to the wine- 
growers of the State, there being only twelve entries altogether, a 
portion of which were imperfect from lack of careful treatment, and 
adulterated to conceal the same. 

''The Committee found evidences of wines that had spoiled being 
^doctored' with brandy or pure spirits to conceal the acid smell and 
taste. In sparkling wines, they found that the same fraud had been 
perpetrated, the sour wines having had brandy and sugar syrup 
added to conceal the acid taste. It is by such practices the wine- 
grower is injured, the entire interest being damaged by the cupidity 
of a comparatively few persons, to pass off spoiled wines as perfect.'' 

It is well known that Californian wines have lost all 
reputation in New York, and that they are seldom 
seen now on gentlemen's tables. In California itself, 
it is very uncommon to see them on the table, or to 
find them in hotels. And jQt there is no one branch 
of agriculture which can become so profitable for this 
State, none which can produce so much in small 
bulk to the acre at so little expense, and of a nature 
to be in such general demand, or to which the cli- 
mate and soil are so wonderfully adapted. In the 
natural course of things, wines, next to wheat, ought 
to be the great export of California. There is no 
limit to the demand, and hardly to her capacities of 



256 THE NEW WEST. 

production. She could yield three hundred millions 
as easily as three millions of gallons. I believe, also, 
among our whisky and brandy-drinking population, 
the introduction of cheap light Californian wines 
would be a public benefit. What is, then, the cause 
of the apparent failure of this most important in- 
dustrial branch in California ? 

On first examining the subject, I confess I feared 
the difficulty lay in some element of the soil or of the 
grape which prevented the production of a good 
wine-juice. But it is evident that the most diverse 
soils are employed in California for wine-culture, and 
analysis does not show that they differ essentially in 
character from European soils. Further investigation 
showed me that the difficulty lay in what has ruined 
so many enterprises in California — in a moral cause — 
in what may be called Jionesty of ivork. There has 
been no lack of intelligence, and energy, and enter- 
prise applied to this, as to every other branch on this 
coast, but there has often been a great want of honesty 
and thoroughness, especially in agents or branches of 
this business in our large cities. I am convinced that 
pure good table-wines are made here, such as never 
reach our market. There is carelessness throughout 
in the export business. The impression is strong 
through California that New York cares for nothing 
but alcoholic, vitiated, and doctored wines, so that 
one wine is mixed with another to suit our supposed 
depraved tastes, and the Port is doctored, and the 
^^ Angelica'^ is prepared for us with 16 to 18 per 
cent, of brandy fretted in, forming, not a wine, but a 



BAD WINE-MAKmG. 257 

liqueur. The casks are often carelessly prepared, thus 
injuring the wine in the start ; the wine is not old 
enough, and ferments on the passage ; then it is badly 
bottled and corked in New York, or San Fancisco, 
and sours or depraves ; and again, in New York, the 
Hock is watered, or the wine is mingled with poor 
French wines, and so palmed off, on our coast, as Cal- 
ifornia wines. The result of all this dishonesty of 
treatment is, that at the end, we, on the eastern 
coast, get most perverted specimens of Californian 
wine. All the leading wine-growers agree that these 
are some of the obstacles to their business. But 
there are difficulties, even back of these, on the vine- 
yards themselves. There is a great deal of careless 
wine-making. I saw one large vvdne-cellar, owned by 
a French vinter, which was occupied half as a stable 
and half as a wine-store, where nothing but a thin 
partition separated the wines fermenting from the ma- 
nure of the stable. Any one who knows the sensi- 
tive nature of the fermenting wine, can imagine the ef- 
fect on its quality. There is, frequently, very little 
care about an equitable temperature for the cellars, 
and the wine acidifies from the changes to which it is 
subject. I think no one ever attempts to make a wine 
from the very choicest of the grapes, as Tokay or 
Johannisberg is made ; everything is thrown in to- 
gether under the wine-press. Irstead of mixing 
grapes for the press, frequently diff 3rent wines are put 
together, which must cause a somewhat artificial wine. 
Then, till recently, vineyards have been too much 
in the rich or adobe (clay) soil of the plains, in- 



258 THE IS-EW WEST. 

stead of on the gravelly or volcanic soil of the hills. 
The mistake, however, is now being rapidly cor- 
rected, and the Foot Hills are being covered with 
vineyards. For a long period, too, irrigation was too 
much employed, which resulted, in some soils, in too 
much wood to the vine, and an insipid fruit. Except 
on the plains of Los Angeles, irrigation for vineyards 
is now mostly abandoned in California. 

The Mission grape, moreover, has been too 
much the favorite. I am inclined to believe, with 
some vintagers, that the Mission grape is really noth- 
ing more than the old Catalonian grape, brought 
here by the Spanish padreSj which makes the sail- 
ors' wine of Spain — a rough, strong, heady wine. 
It is their favorite, because they tried it first, and 
it happened to succeed. The wine it now yields 
is precisely of this character — rough, alcoholic, 
and heady, with a strong, coarse aroma, and in 
the red variety, tasting of the earth. I doubt if it 
ever made a good wine in California, and yet there 
are millions of vines of it. The experienced vinta- 
gers are now seeing the necessity of mingling this 
grape, imdcr the press, with the foreign grape, to 
give the wine a delicate bouquet and flavor. Some 
discard it altogether. 

The whole science of grape-growing has been neces- 
sarily an experiment on this coast. The rules which 
applied to Europe often did not at ail hold here. It was 
discovered soon that a slight change in soil and climate 
made an entire change in the wine produced. The 
best grape for a given locality, and its mode of treat- 



ment, were entirely matters of experiment. Every- 
thing had to be learned. Moreover, wine-making 
itself is like bread-making, a fruit of tact and tra- 
ditional experience. Here all was new in the mat- 
ter. Then, there was little capital in the business, 
and the vine-growers were obliged to put their 
wines on the market too young, and thus offend the 
public taste, as they were compared with older wines. 
But with all these obstacles, and with the dishonesty 
of agents and dealers, I am convinced that California 
has produced, and will hereafter produce, such native 
wines as have never yet reached our market, and 
which will in time engage in a successful competition 
with European wines. 



260 THE KEW WEST. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



THE SONOMA VINEYAEDS. 



The usual character of the summer scenery in the 
Californian valleys, as I have often said, is a brown 
intervale, like a grain stubble-field, sprinkled with 
clumps of oaks or single elms of dark-green foliage, 
and bounded by equally brown hills of rolling form, 
set out Avith oaks, as if by art. It is only on closer 
examination that you discover the brown fields to be 
often wild-oat fields, and the supposed elms, the white 
oaks, left as nature planted them. Three of the 
prettiest valleys in the State — the Napa, Petaluma, 
and Sonoma — have now the additional beauty of 
green vineyards on the plains and on the hill-sides. 
Sonoma has the reputation of possessing the neatest 
and most carefully-managed vineyards in the State. 
The town of the valley — Sonoma- — is a wretched, 
run-down-looking village, with one of the poorest 
hotels in the State, sorely needing, as an old Spaniard, 
Gen. Vallejo, frankly informed us, an arrival of 
Yankee settlers to wake it up. 

The whole valley, however, is filled with beautiful 
vineyards, to which is generally attached a neat villa 
or farm-house. These places are nicely kept, and 
evidently worked with skill and care. I visited, in 
company with a most delightful companion and 
friend, Mr. Craig's, Mr. Carrigan's, Major Schnei- 



VII^EYAKDS. 201 

der's, tlie ^' Biienca Vista/^ and Mr. Dresel^s. Noth- 
ing can surpass the hospitality and courtesy of these 
California country-gentlemen to strangers. 

The production of the vineyards ranged from 22,- 
000 gallons to 43,000 gallons per annum each. 
The whole number of vines in the valley is esti- 
mated at 2,438,000. The soil is a red gravelly 
clay near the foot of the hills, and a light sandy 
loam in the centre of the valley; the best wine, as 
usual, comes from the hills. The usual plan was to 
plant the vines eight feet apart, each way, so that 
plows and cultivators could easily pass through them ; 
this would give G80 to the acre. One vineyard found 
six feet enough, and had 1,210 to the acre. CoL 
Haraszthy had attempted a three-feet division on a 
new theory, but his successor on the Buena Vista 
vineyard — Mr, Dresel — had been obliged to take up 
thousands of his vines, to the great loss of the Society, 
as this division cost so much in hand-labor, and di- 
minished so much the product. No trenching or 
manuring is used in California. Here the soil is 
plowed at least one foot in depth, and then harrowed, 
and perhaps rolled ; it is subsequently cross-plowed 
sometimes twice, and thus is broken up three or four 
times during a season, this method bringing the 
moisture of the atmosphere to the roots, in a climate 
which has no summer rain. In regard to summer 
pruning and low pruning of vines in California, there 
is great difference of opinion among vintagers. The 
usual method is not to prune during the summer the 
first year, but to rub off the weaker buds, and in the 



262 THE NEW WEST. 

autumn, if the vines are intended to furnisli layers, 
to leave two strong lateral branches, and one good 
stalk with two buds. Every spring the main stems 
are reduced to two or four buds 5 some^ however, 
trim in the autumn in preference. Of the layer- 
planting it is not necessary here to speak in detail. 
Generally the vines are pruned low — say eighteen 
inches or two feet ; but in northern exposures this 
subjects the clusters of grapes to too much moisture, 
and they are allowed a higher growth. The summer 
pruning is thought by many vintagers to be inju- 
dicious or useless, as in this climate there is only too 
much heat and light, and all the lungs of the plants 
are needed to absorb moisture. The best vines I saw 
in this valley were pruned low — like tomato vines — 
but tied up so that the grapes would not rest on the 
ground, as contact with it injures them. The squeez- 
ing of the buds at an early period, is thought much 
better than summer knife-pruning. All, it should be 
remembered, are trimmed do^vn to two or four buds.* 
Vines are seldom staked in California, as upon the 
Rhine, or trained or trellised, as in Italy, but are left 
in heads or bunches, with branches five or six feet 
long — this horizontal training distributing the sap 
equally, and the leaves sheltering the grapes from 
the excessive heat of the sun, and keeping the warmth 
of the earth round the grapes at night. The vines 
act, too, as a sort of midching on the surface of the 
ground, and retain its moisture. 

The yield in the Sonoma Valley was often spoken 
of as averaging thirteen pounds of fruit, or a gallon 



COST PER ACRE. 263 

of wine to the vine after five years, which would 
make a product of some 650 gallons to the acre. The 
Buena Vista vineyard did not average more than 400 
gallons, but with 370 acres under cultivation, on a 
part of which were young vines. I have known, 
however, 1,000 gallons to the acre, even upon twenty 
acres, and there are even larger yields. In France 
and Germany the average is said to be 175 gallons, 
and in Italy 400 gallons. At 600 gallons it gives a 
return of, say $240 per acre, and if the wine be of 
good quality, a much larger one. No other crop is 
nearly so profitable. 

The expenses are variously estimated. Mr. Beard 
reckons the whole cost of vines (say $10 per 1,000), 
of preparing, harrowing, and four times plowing, per 
acre, for the first year, as about $30. 

Mr. Hyatt puts the cultivating for vines at $15 per 
acre; summer-fallow, $5; cuttings, $5 per 1,000; 
planting, $2 per 1,000; cultivating, $15 per acre, or 
total $42 per acre. 

The general estimate after that for three years is 
$7,50 each year per acre ; Mr. Hyatt makes it about 
$20. On the fourth year there may be a yield of 
2,000 pounds per acre, which at two cents a pound 
would pay two years' cultivation. The fifth year 
5,000 pounds may be reasonably expected, and the 
sixth, 6,000 pounds to 9,000 pounds, the seventh, from 
6,000 to 10,000, or even as high as 13,000 pounds. 
Grapes, however, when sold for wine-pressing to 
neighboring vineyards will not bring now more than a 
cent and a-half a pound. In the San Francisco 



264 THE NEW WEST. 

markets they cost from five cents to ten cents ; the 
most delicate and superb table-grapes^ not surpassed 
in the world^ such as the black Hamburg, the Muscat 
of Alexandria, Muscatel, Malaga, and others, seldom 
bringing at retail more than eight cents a pound. 

Good vine-land, unbroken, can be bought from $5 
to $75 per acre. Vineyards of six or seven years of 
age sell from $100 to $400 per acre. 

Many of these vintagers sold their wine near by, 
carting it themselves. In one case Mr. Carrigan had 
succeeded remarkably in making a red wine from the 
Zinfidel grape, which was one of the best red wines 
in California (for in general the red wines here are 
miserable). For this he received $1.50 per gallon, 
when four years old. This grape — the Zinfindel, or 
Zinfidel — is a large bearer. It is said to be a Hun- 
garian seedling of the black Pineaux, or of a Cham- 
pagne grape of France. It is a highly-esteemed va- 
riety. The profits on the private vineyards were 
evidently large, as they aU looked comfortable and 
well kept, though in general they did not get more 
than forty cents per gallon for their wine, which is at 
the rate of about eight cents a bottle. 

There was little that was new in the processes for 
making wine in this valley. It was as nearly as pos- 
sible like the cider-making in New England j the 
white wine being the juice of the grapes pressed 
under a wine-press, and the red wine from ferment- 
ing the pulp of mashed grapes, the color coming from 
the skins 5 the juice of the latter is then pressed out 
and finishes its fermentation in a clean cask. The 



WINE-MAKING. 265 

earthy taste of the red wine must come from some 
peculiar quality of these skins. In some cases the 
grapes are passed through a machine to separate the 
stems from the grapes, and mash them without break- 
ing the seed. The must is run into clean casks, made 
as pure as possible from all taste of the wood or all 
previous liquors. The cask is kept in a cool cellar. 
Fermentation is carried on here with loosened bungs, 
the gases being supposed to expel the air ; but much 
aroma must thus escape. I have not seen anywhere 
in California fermentation by a syphon through water, 
though there are a few vineyards where this is 
tried. 

The cellars in Sonoma are the best in the State, 
those of the Buena Vista Society being cut in the 
solid rock, at a very great expense. The others are 
generally large buildings, like barns, above ground, 
with thick or double Avails. In one, Major Schnei- 
der's, the temperature is said to be kept within a 
few degrees of 60^ the year round. This gentleman, 
owing to his wealth, is able to keep his wines some 
years, and Avill undoubtedly acquire much reputation 
for them, because they are not forced on the market 
too young. Two or three of his white whies are 
among the best of the State. His foreman derided 
the idea of the Mission grape making a good wine 
alone ; he uses the foreign varieties, among them, the 
RissUng, from which the celebrated Johannisberg is 
made. This grape is a great favorite in the valley. 
It is thus described : Bunches of medium size and 
compact 5 berries light-colored, rather small, and 
12 



266 THE NEW WEST. 

round; skin thin; flesh tender and juicy, with sweet 
and sprightly flavor. The White Muscatine is used 
here also. I suppose from it is made a Muscatel wine 
by Mr. Dresel, which is one of the most delicate 
wines made in California. It has never reached our 
coast. 

The Buena Vista, from various causes, has not paid 
a profit ; perhaps it never will ; but I am convinced, 
under its present skillful superintendence, it will here- 
after produce some celebrated wines. Mr. Duesel, 
the superintendent, has now some very fair white 
wines. His sparkling wine I did not taste. 

The Sonoma white wines are found, by Dr. Weth- 
ERELL, to contain 8 J per cent of alcohol, and the red 
wines, 10 per cent. The Hock of 1860 had 14 per 
cent. 

CALIFORNIA CHAMPAGNE. 

Innumerable experiments have been tried in this 
valley, in making a sparkling wine. Two methods 
have been attempted in California to produce the ef- 
fervescing quality — one by normal fermentation in 
bottles, and the other by injecting carbonic acid gas 
into still wine. 

The latter is universally considered an unhealthy 
and iUegitimate way of producing this wine. Over 
two hundred thousand dollars are said to have been 
expended in vain by various firms — the Messrs. 
Sansevain Brothers, Crevolin Brothers, and 
Col. Haraszthy, and the Buena Vista VinicuUural 
Society, in these experiments. 



CHAMPAGNE. 267 

The following is an account in the Evening Bulletin 
of the difficulties of the latter association : 

" In 1863, this association commenced operations by putting up 
9,000 bottles of wine, which not proving of a good sparkling quality, 
was uncorked, put into casks again, and sold for vinegar or distill- 
ing. In 1864, they put in 72,000 bottles, from which they sent to 
this city between 500 and 600 dozen, and uncorked the balance and 
sold it for the same fault as in the preceding year. In 1865, they put 
in 42,000 bottles, which fermenting too violently, caused a breakage 
of over 50 per cent., while a large part of the rest had to be uncorked 
and put in casks again to save it. This wine was disposed of for 
the same purposes as in the preceding years, the Society getting 
very little sound wine from that year's making. In 18ij6, they put 
up about 40,000 bottles, which is still in course of manufacture, and 
from which, and the wine of 1865, the officers of the Society expect 
to get about 2,000 dozen in condition to market. The wine used in the 
above-named years was made from the Mission or California variety 
of grape, grown in the Society's vineyards in Sonoma Valley. The 
wine, before bottling, was of excellent quality, and every circum- 
stance connected with it promised success in making good spark- 
ling wine. The expert who had charge of the manufacture was con- 
sidered fully competent to succeed, but the results were unsatisfac- 
tory, as above stated. 

''In January of this year, I. Lansberger, agent of the Vinicultural 
Society in this city, in connection with Arpad Haraszthy (son of 
Col. Haraszthy), concluded to engage in making sparkling wine in 
San Francisco. The latter-named gentleman had gone through an 
apprenticeship of over two years in the wine cellars of the best 
champagne wine-firms of Rheims, France, and felt satisfied that the 
obstacles that stood in the way of successful champagne-making 
could be overcome. After several trials, with varying results, he 
succeeded in May, in producing a few dozen of really good wine, 
which he considered equal, if not superior, to any then made in the 
State. Relinquishing his agency for the Buena Vista Vinicultural So- 
ciety's wines, Mr. Lansberger removed to Jackson, near Montgom- 
ery street, where he fitted up the building for wine-making, which he 
has steadily prosecuted up to the present date. With the view of ex- 
perimenting without excessive loss through failure, he has made wine 
in comparatively small lots, so that if one or more proved defective 



268 THE KEW WEST. 

in quality, the fault might be corrected without large waste. He 
commenced in May with a lot of 65 dozen bottles, and up to the first 
of October, had put up twelve separate lots of that quantity, with 
the following results : First lot failed to sparkle, and was uncorked ; 
the second, third, and fourth lot progressed slowly, and a large por- 
tion had to be uncorked for want of sparkle. The fifth lot fermented 
too violently, and after about 40 per cent, of the bottles were broken, 
the rest were uncorked to save the bottles. The succeeding lots 
proved of excellent quality, and have been disposed of as soon as 
boxed, ready for delivery. The average breakage of bottles was 
about 16 per cent, on the amount put up, while the wastage in dis- 
gorging made the total loss about 25 per cent. The manufacture of 
sparkling wines requires the use of good judgment and skill, as the 
condition of the wine, in its various stages of manufacture, is judged 
almost entirely by the eye. Skillfulness in shaking bottles, to settle 
the deposit in the wine on corks, and good taste in flavoring, are 
also required, and can only be attained by thorough instruction and 
practice." 

The process of making is not essentially different 
from the French method, except that it is much 
shorter — for four months instead of ten months — and 
no refined wine spirits need be added to the wine, 
on account of its natural strength of alcohol (some 14 
per cent.) Artificial heat, too, is used in the early 
stages of fermentation, by the principal maker, Lans- 
BERGER, in San Francisco ; though I think not in So- 
noma. White wine, from six months to two years old 
is used, grape-sugar, or a solution of rock-candy, being 
added in the casks, and the whole is repeatedly stir- 
red till fermentation begins. Then the wine is 
drawn off into bottles, which are corked and tied with 
strong twine, and then stacked in large piles. They 
are now placed in the heating-rooms, if heat is used. 

When the wine has reached a favorable stage, it is 
restacked, with the heads downward. The sediment 



CHAMPAGNE-MAKII^TG. 269 

now deposits itself on tlie side of tlie bottle. Every 
day the bottle is shaken by an experienced hand, to 
bring the sediment dow^i just above the cork. When 
the v»dne works clear, the expert very dextrously cuts 
the twine, and lets the cork and sediment be driven out 
by the gas ; both are caught in a tub, as also what- 
ever wine may be spilled in the operation. The bot- 
tle is now passed to the filler and receives the flavor- 
ing and sweetening liquid, and any wine needed to 
fill it ; it is then corked by machine, and the cork 
wired. Afterward the bottles are carefully exam- 
ined, lest some fragments of glass or cork may be in 
them, and then are labeled and packed. The wine 
ought to be kept several months, to improve in qual- 
ity. The great losses in this business are from break- 
age of bottles, especially in May and August, when 
fermentation is active. The expenses, too, in Califor- 
nia, are very high, as compared Avith those of France j 
bottles, all imported, costing SI per dozen, and corks 
$40 per thousand. 

The produce, thus far, of California, in sparkling 
vfine, I believe is in sufficient demand at home to 
need no export ; though sample cases have been sent 
to various countries. It has mainly been made from 
the Mission grape, but nov/ the Muscatel is being 
employed for it. 

I suppose a hundred different varieties of grapes 
are being tried in Sonoma Valley. 

It is remarkable that such skillful cultivators can 
give so little scientific information about their v/ines. 
Not one knew the proportion of sugar or of alcohol in 



270 THE KEAV WEST. 

their wines, exactly, thougli some of them had sac- 
charometers. The analysis of Dr. Wetherell, of 
the Smithsonian Institute, gives eight and a half joer 
cent, as the percentage of alcohol in the white wine, 
and one per cent, of sugar when free from alcohol. 
The red wine has ten per cent, of alcohol, and two 
per cent, of sugar ; while some California wines, as 
the Port, have eighteen per cent, of alcohol, and seven 
and a half per cent, of sugar ; and the Angelica, 
seventeen per cent, of sugar and eighteen of alco- 
hol. 

The great want in the wine-culture of California, is 
a light, cheap table-wine. Sonoma, from its cooler 
climate, and the character of its soil, seems capable 
of producing this. 

In this wonderful climate, the grape thrives to 
perfection. The total rain-fall in California is only 22 
inches, while on the Rhine it is3G.17 inches, and at 
Bordeaux, 34; in Madeira, 30.87 ; and even in Mal- 
aga 23.3 inches. It is rare to find a year in Germany 
or France in which damp or frosts do not injure the 
grapes. Here they are never injured. Rot is un- 
known, and disease scarce ever attacks the vines. 

The mean annual temperature of California is al- 
most exactly that of Cadiz — 60^ ; while the vintage 
months average 68*^ in Sacramento ; in Malaga, 71*^. 
The advantage here over many countries is, that the 
summer heat is prolonged into autumn — the mean 
temperature of Sacramento, in September, being 78*^ 
95'. Sonoma is probably a little cooler, and there- 
fore better adapted for northern vine-growers. 



A COMPAKISON. 271 

Among all the wines produced in this valley^ and 
in other parts of California, both from the Isabella 
grape and other varieties, I am surprised at thus far 
meeting with none which can at all compare, in purity, 
and flavor, and bouquet, with one Eastern Avinc — the 
Sherry made from the Isabella grape by the Brothers 
Rowley, at Hastings-ujDon-Hudson. The comparison, 
of course, can only be made with the strong wines, such 
as resemble Sherry or Madeira. The labors of these 
gentlemen are a model to all wine-makers. They have 
experimented faithfully and carefully during some four- 
teen years, doing their work in a very modest, but 
very honest manner ; not puffing their wares, and not 
pressing them on the market till they were sure of 
their quality. Whatever other merits it possessed, 
they were determined that their wine should be pure 
and genuine, and the natural fermentation of the 
grape-juice. No alcohol or brandy was fretted in, 
or essential oils added, or artificial coloring or ingre- 
dients mixed in. The Hastings wine is a pure natural 
American wine, not exactly a Sherry or Madeira, 
having its ovm. delicious flavor and bouquet, without 
the headiness and alcohol of the California strong 
wines, and full of health and vigor to those needing a 
vinous tonic. 

This result is the fruit of years of quiet, honest 
work, on a soil infinitely inferior to that of Sonoma or 
Los Angeles, and with a comparatively unfavorable 
climate. Not till the vintagers of California work as 
thoroughly, honestly, and with as much science, will 
they produce a strong wine equal to our eastern wine. 



273 THE NEW WEST. 

THE SIERRAS AXD FOOT HILLS. 

The best vine districts of this State will hereafter 
be the borders and the sides of the Sierras. It is 
believed that the whole range of mountains, from 
Shasta to Santa Barbara, say 25 miles broad by 350 
long*, is admirably adapted for grape cultivation. 
The climate, too, is drier than in the coast range. 
The wines made are generally like those of Madeira 
and Teneriffe, with a strong per centage of alcohol. 

In Nevada County the soil chosen is a volcanic ash, 
or sedimentary lava, like the soil of the vineyards on 
Vesuvius, or it is decomposed granite, enriched with 
potash and soda, and impregnated with oxide of iron. 
It is not improbable that in the future, wines will be 
almost accidentally produced in such j^laccs, equal 
to Johannisberg or Tokay. 

At present, in the above county, there are only some 
130,000 vines; but land is cheap, and the hills will 
soon be covered with vineyards. 

Mr. Waite states that 8,000 pounds of grapes to 
the acre, from vines five years old, is not uncommon. 
The vines need irrigation the first year, but after 
that, on moist soils, Avill take care of themselves. 
The use of a plovr or cultivator in summer often 
supersedes irrigation. The vineyards are small, vary- 
ing from 100 to 3,000 vines. There is but one with 
more than 10,000 vines. The French have made 
here a species of claret ; the grapes cultivated are the 
Mission, Black Hamburg, Muscatel, and Catawba. 
The wines of this county are generally strongly alcohol- 
ic ; they are thrown into market young, but bring high 



AVINES. 273 

prices, some selling as high as two dollars per gallon, 
even in cask. In Grass Valley there are numerous 
vineyards. The best red wine made in the State, 
resembling Burgundy, I am assured, on good authority, 
is made at Columbia, Tuolumne County, on the Foot 
Hills, by Mr. Jarvis. 

At Coloma, on the Sierras, the Isabella and Ca- 
tawba grapes are found to succeed remarkably well. 
Mr. Aliioff has distinguished himself with wines from 
these. There is a single Isabella vine here, trained 
on an arbor, w^hich bears this year some 2,500 
bimches, weighing 1,000 pounds. 

At Folsom, Sacramento County, Mr. Bugbey has 
succeeded in making the very finest raisins. His 
crop last year was 25,000 pounds, worth twenty cents 
a pound. He also made nineteen different varieties 
of wines. His whole product was 10,000 gallons last 
year, worth from SI. 2 5 to $2 per gallon. 

The following is the analysis of his soil : 

Silica and silicates of alumina, iron, and magnesia. . 894.50 

Alumina and peroxide of iron 49.50 

Lime 2.37 

Magnesia •: - 0.21 

Soluble salts 14.22 

960.80 

Organic matter 30.00 

Moisture. ^-20 

1,000.00 

This is what would be called a poor soil ; yet it 
produces the finest grapes. His red wine, from the 
red Traminer, is highly spoken of. 
12* 



274 THE NEW AVEST. 

RAISINS. 

Eaisins are made by half breaking the stems of the 
principal bunches of grapes^ and thus preventing the 
flow of sap. The fruit then shrivels in the sun^ the 
watery portion is dried^ and the sugar concentrated 
and increased in proportion. A good grape for this 
purpose is one of the many Malaga varieties, but a 
Hungarian grape {Fifer Zagos) is preferred. The 
raisins from this are of a light- red color and white 
bloom, of medium size, with a thin skin, tender pulp 
and seed, and a pure, sweet flavor, free from musky 
taste.* This grape was brought from Hungary, in 
1853, and from two small cuttings have sprung 50,000 
bearing vines, and some 300,000 cuttings and roots. 
It is a prolific bearer, and averages in six years 
thirty to forty pounds to the vine. This vine is usu- 
ally trimmed, like the other vines in California, as a to- 
mato bush, the main stalk some eighteen inches from 
the ground. The young wood is staked up about four 
feet high, and the runners pinched in during the 
summer, so as to throw out lateral shoots, and thus 
protect the fruit from the rays of the sun by the 
leaves. 

There has been some discussion whether this grape 
was not really a Malaga variety, but opinion inclines 
to its being a Hungarian. A golden-colored wine is 
made from it, between Sherry and Madeira. The 
fruit grows in long bunches, and the berries are of 
oblong shape, light-green translucent color, and vary- 
ing in size from the middle of the bunch down. 

* Mr. Dunn's Report to State Agricultural Society of 18G8. 



CATAWBA WINE. 275 

The ]\Iuscat of Alexandria has also been tried for 
raisins, but they are miiskv, and tend too much to 
absorb moisture and ferment. The white Chasselas, 
also, is found not to succeed, the skin being too tough, 
and the seeds too large and hard, and the pulp not 
sweet or full enough. 

The Mission grape makes a fair second-class raisin. 
About 80,000 pounds of raisins were produced in the 
State, in 1S6G. Before many years California will 
supply the Union with raisins. 

^' The Catawba,'^ says Mr. Hittel, ^^ bears twenty- 
five per cent, less than the Mission grape, and it re- 
quires about two poimds more of the berries to make 
a gallon of wine, but there is a certain and prompt 
market at twice the price paid for the wine made of 
the Mission grape. Mr. Alhob'F sells all his wine, 
except perhaps fifty gallons reserved for keeping, 
before it is eight months old. Besides the produce 
of his own vineyard, he buys all the Catawba grapes 
he can get from his neighbors. Last fall he paiJ two 
cents per pound on the vine, and two and a half cents 
delivered. He has the handsomest Avine-cellars that 
I have seen in the State. They are fifty feet long, 
twenty feet wide, twelve feet high, built in the hill- 
side, and are arched over with neatly cut sandstone. 
One of his cellars is almost nice enough for a parlor. 
Mr. Alhoff says that the Catawba wine keeps far 
better than any other. Pie can draw off a 500-gallon 
cask of it, gallon by gallon, for four months, and it will 
keep sweet, whereas other wines will turn sour in a 
few weeks if the cask is not fulL'^ 



276 THE NEW WEST. 

Mr. BuGBEY ranks his varieties as follows, in the 
ordernamecl, viz. : the Black Zinfindel, Red Traminer, 
White Malaga, Verdelho, and Los Angeles. The Ver- 
delho makes the best wine, and the Black Zinfindel 
produces the largest quantity of grapes. 

In the Foot Hills the Red Mountain and Zinfindel 
grapes are said by Mr. Hittel, a most intelligent 
observer, to bear more than the Mission variety, and 
the Catawba and Isabella only one-third as much. 
The Muscat varieties make excellent raisins, but bear 
twenty-five per cent, less than the Mission grape. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

LOS ANGELES — ORANGE- GROVES AND VINEYARDS. 

The trip to Los Angeles (some five hundred miles) 
I made by steamer in about three days — a pleasant 
voyage in good company. We stopped only at Santa 
Barbara. The great difficulty of this whole southern 
coast is the weint of good harbors. We anchored at 
Don Pedro^ some twenty-two miles from Los Angeles^ 
almost in an open roadstead, and then Vv^ere taken in 
a tug four miles to Wilmington, a place of 1,000 in- 
habitants, built up by the energy of one man. Here a 
coach took us for eighteen miles over a flat plain, 
covered with wild mustard, some eight feet high, to 
Los Angeles. 

The region about Los Angeles may be considered 
as the ^' South'^ of California. It is largely settled 
by Southerners ; it was somewhat secessionist, or at 
least opposed to the Government, during the war. 
The people have all the virtues and the vices of that 
section of our country ; they are warm-hearted, 
hospitable, slovenly, lazy, and profane. Nature has 
done everything for it, and man very little. The 
whole region is half a century behind the north of 
Cahfornia in its improvements, and yet has a climate, 
a soil, and a luxuriance of vegetation, and a variety 
of fruits, which made the early Spaniards consider it 
the very garden of the angels. 



278 THE -NEW AVEST. 

I asked a Catholic priest with whom I was 
traveling, if it deserved its name. He replied, 
characteristically, that the Holy Scriptures informs 
us there are two kinds of angels, the good and the 
bad, and of the latter he thought there was no want 
in the place. The name must have been originally 
applied to the town by travelers coming here in the 
spring, over the Arizona desert. To them a bit of 
green must have seemed angelic. Froebel's 
description of its loveliness, as I recall it, seems 
highly romantic and exaggerated. It is simply a 
Spanish mud village of one-story houses, with broad, 
dirty, hot streets. Beneath the wide verandas the 
people sit, and two-thirds of the population seem to 
spend the day smoking in front of the hotel, and 
going in for " drinks.'^ Without the town are broad 
roads, which are dusty or cut up with the surface- 
irrigation, running between large willow hedges, 
made by sticking willow branches in the ground and 
interlacing them like a fence ; they soon grow and 
form a thick, scraggy, ugly hedge, twelve or fifteen 
feet high. And this in a climate where the beautiful 
pepper-tree makes a superb hedge, and I suppose the 
cherry-holly would grow luxuriantly. Behind these 
hedges, however, are the richest gardens, vineyards, 
orange-groves, and lemon, fig, and olive plantations 
which can be seen in America. The country beyond 
these places is flat, brown, and arid, till another green 
and beautiful plain is reached, watered artificially 
from the Santa Susanna Mountains, some ten or 
twelve miles from the town. On a height near the 



LOS Al^-GELES. 279 

city is a very pretty view of the Los Angeles Valley, 
green with vineyards, orange-groves, and willow 
hedges; it is some fifty miles long by twenty-five 
broad, and irrigation is supplied by the river of the 
same name. Between Los Angeles and its seaport, 
Wilmington, on the other side, are some twenty miles 
of brown heath, covered with wild mustard. There 
are certainly scores of places in California far more 
beautiful. 

The town itself has had, till recently, a bad name. 
It has been the Botany Bay of both California and 
Mexico. Hither drifted all the cut-throats and rogues 
of both countries, to be near the border and thus 
easily escape the law. There have been several 
Vigilance Committees here during the last ten years ; 
the last one, a few years since, hung five men. Even 
now, though it contains some 8,000 inhabitants, the 
town has no gas* in the streets, and I was told by 
various citizens that they would not cross the plaza 
at night for fear of robbery. No one rides in the 
country near by without arms, and there have been 
instances of the Mexicans attempting to lasso 
travelers for the purpose of murder and robbery. 
Probably one-half of the population are native 
Californian or Mexican, and very slow to adopt any 
improvement. This is one of the strongholds of 
Californian Democracy. But American ideas and 
men are penetrating it. A most energetic and able 
man — the Republican Senator to the State Legislature, 
Gen. Banning — has taken hold of Wilmington, and 

* Since then, I understand the city has been lighted with gas made from 
asphaltum, which abounds in this region. 



280 THE NEW \yEST. 

is building that up, and bringing a great deal of 
business there. New one-story brick houses are 
taking the place of the adobe. Schools are being 
improved under an intelligent school superintendent, 
Mr. McKee. Law is now supreme, and robberies or 
deeds of violence but seldom occur. The Spanish land- 
holders are being stirred up at what they see around 
them, and are making many improvements. And 
in the town and country around are some large Ameri- 
can landed proprietors, who are exceedingly intelligent 
and public-spirited. Among them are Mr. Keller, 
Mr. Wilson, and M. Sansevain, the largest vine- 
growers in the State. It seems, however, the mis- 
fortune of this region, that the land is held in such 
large parcels, and but few small independent farmers 
are to be found. Yet, as promising a speedy pe- 
cuniary return, it is undoubtedly the most desirable 
place for farmers emigrating, in the whole State. The 
climate is warm, but tempered by a cool sea-breeze, 
so that there is less suffering from the heat than 
in some of the mountain districts of the State. Fever 
and ague seem almost unknown, and there are few 
prevalent diseases. The nights are generally cool j 
but even in winter frost seldom does any damage. 

One of the finest places I visited was Mr. Wilson'*^, 
a gentleman well knoAvn for his hospitality and his 
large agricultural operations. His estate is some 
nine miles from Los Angeles, and extends in the plain, 
beneath the Santa Susanna Mountains, for some ten 
or eleven miles, containing 14,000 acres of land. 
The view from the hill near the house is charming. 



281 

a plain in front, green with tlie orange groves and 
vineyards, and the towers of the old Spanish Mission, 
(San Gabriel) rising from the rich foliage. In the 
east, the peak of San Bernardino and the summit of 
San Gorgonio, and to the north, the fine masses of 
the San Fernando mountains, some 8,000 feet high. 
Mr. Wilson's vineyaid contains 300,000 vines, 
mostly of the Mission grape, wide planted and low- 
pruned. In this climate, especially near the city, the 
vine-growers are obliged to irrigate. One field of 
twenty acres produces some twenty thousand gallons 
of wine; his whole production is about 100,000 
gallons. He makes a Avhite wine, which, after four or 
five years, is a very fair table-wine. I think the price 
of ordinary wine here is 35 or 40 cents per gallon. 

We saw here a beautiful grove of orange trees, 
with dark green, velvety leaves, sprinkled with 
lidit 2:reen branches — the richest foliage to be seen 
in nature. They were set some twenty feet apart ; 
they bear eight or ten years after the planting of the 
seed. The full-grown tree can reach thirty or forty 
feet in height. Twenty of Mr. Wilson's trees 
yielded $1,200 in one year. He has about 2,000 
orange-trees growing, and nearly as many lemon. 
There is a great demand on this coast for lemons, 
even in the mining region, and when the demand is 
satisfied the juice can be converted into citric acid. 
Lemons are worth three cents a-piece on the ground, 
and a tree will frequently yield $50 or $60 in one 
year. It is easily propagated from cuttings, and will 
bear in six or eight years. There are two varieties 



2S2 THE NEW WEST. 

here, the Sicily and the China. The last, however, 
is considered ahnost worthless ; it bears a large lemon 
of a bright orange-color, with corrugated skin, but it 
is sour, without flavor. Both oranges and lemons 
are set out widely enough apart to give the matured 
tree full scope, and the ground about them is kept 
broken and loose. I think no manure is used. The 
ripening season commences in December, and lasts 
till May. Their enemies are the gophers, who gnaw 
the trunk near the ground, and an insect which hides 
under the leaf, and smears it with a glutinous matter 
that injures the plant. On the whole, however, there 
is little difficulty in raising them. The original Los 
Angeles oranges are said to have come from the seed 
of the Sandwich Island orange, but, as usually happens 
here, the California seed and fruit prove better 
than the original. Both the orange and lemon of Los 
Angeles are remarkably good. It is estimated that 
there are about 8,800 fruit-bearing orange trees in 
the valley; 135,000 maturing trees, and 200,000 
plants. The fruit-bearing are said to average about 
2,000 oranges each after eight years, which would 
give a crop of over 17,000,000, worth some $527,000 
for the Los Angeles farmers. Of lemons, the estimate 
is 500 fruit-bearing, 2,500 maturing, and 35,000 of 
this spring's planting. A single orchard which I vis- 
ited afterward — Mr. Wolfskill's — will produce 
600,000 oranges this season. 

The tendency in California is always to overdo any 
particular branch, and Los Angeles, alone, will glut 
the market with these fruits. 



ALMONDS AKD OLIVES. 283 

I was shown a bush of limes on Mr. Wilson's place, 
from which the children had sold $16 worth, and it 
seemed still full of fruit. 

The lime-tree is propagated from seed, and bears 
fruit in five years. There are estimated to be of 
limes in this valley 400 fruit-bearing, 1,500 maturing, 
and 5,000 seedlings. 

Of figs, fruit-bearing, 3,500', maturing, 7,000; 
this spring's cuttings, 10,000. The fig is propa- 
gated from cuttings and bears in two years. It yields 
two crops, in June and in August. 

Among the trees on this and other estates here, are 
the English walnuts, almonds and olives. The walnut is 
a beautiful shade-tree, and bears in seven years from 
the nuts. There is always a good demand for the 
nut. The almond yields from the sixth year, and 
its fruit will bring thirty-five cents a pound, and 
can be exported to any part of the world. Its only 
enemy is a fungus, which attaches itself to the ends 
of the roots and gradually spreads to the heart of the 
tree. The oHve ripens beautifully, and they are now 
extracting the oil for market, so that olive oil will 
become another of the many exports of this rich and 
fertile valley. 

Besides these, peaches, apricots, nectarines, apples, 
pears, pomegranates, cherries, strawberries, melons, 
cactus-fruit, and even the palm, grow and flourish in 
this delicious climate. 

It is unfortunately unsuited alone to wheat, which 
does not seem to grow well south of Monterey — the 
sea fogs and hot sun causing rust. The yield is only 



284 THE NEW WEST. 

some ten or fifteen bushels to the acre. Indian corn 
grows here some ten or twelve feet high^ and will bear 
to the amount of 175 bushels to the acre. Among 
the strange variety of vegetable products which await 
the energy of Americans in this favored region, is the 
castor-bean. The beans are planted two or three in 
a hill, and then thinned out, leaving one healthy 
plant to the hill. They require no more work than 
corn, and will yield often thirty or forty bushels to 
the acre. 

Fifteen hundred pounds to the acre is not un- 
common, which is equal to seventy-five gallons of oil, 
worth, at $2.50 per gallon, some $187 — a good return 
per acre. This plant grows well, also, in the north 
of California. 

All the fields and hills around Los Angeles are 
covered with the wild mustard, sometimes eight feet 
high. This produces an excellent mustard, better, 
many assert, than the European. It is believed that 
this will eventually be cut by reapers and harvested 
with great profit. It is thought, also, that various 
tropical fruits would succeed here, such as pine- 
apples, bananas, coffees, cocoa-nuts, and even taro, 
from the Pacific islands. 

Immense sheep ranches occupy the apparently 
barren plains and hills without the city. But the 
terrible drought of 1863 cut off great numbers of 
cattle which used to sprinkle the heights. It also had 
the effect of breaking up some of the large ranches, 
as the owners were reduced to poverty, and were 
forced to sell their land. I heard of one estate, of 



LAKGE EANCHES. 285 

250,000 acres, with 50,000 cattle on it, owned by a 
Yankee Don, which was thus broken up and sold. 
There are other large ranches, one, the San Fer- 
nando, owned by Gen. Pico, contains 121,619 acres j 
another, belonging to Messrs. PiCO & Stearns, 56,- 
979 acres ; another, belonging to the Jeeba family, 
62,516 acres; another, the San Pecho, 43,119 acres, 
and so on with many others. A great part, however, 
of these immense estates is utterly useless for every- 
thing but pasture, and even the good soils require 
constant irrigation to make them bear well. The 
riparian and water-claims are a source of incessant 
litigation and quarrel. 

Of the 20,000 inhabitants of this valley, only about 
one-third are native American. Yet the immense 
energy and restless impulse of the Yankee population 
are gradually but surely driving out the old Spaniards 
from their ill-farmed or neglected properties. It is 
rare anywhere in California that you pass a thrifty, 
well-kept farm, and hear that this is a Spaniard's or 
Mexican's. As a general thing the Spanish o^^mer 
has gambled, or drunk, or otherwise wasted his prop- 
erty, or has been passed by his neighbors in com- 
petition, or has lost large portions of his ranch by 
sharp legal practice among the Yankees. On a broad 
view it is better for the whole country that his 
wide, half-cultivated, or abandoned farm, should be 
broken up, even by an oppressive legislation 5 and, 
undoubtedly, his own original title was often hardly 
more equitable or legal than that of the squatters on 
his neglected acres. Certainly many of the grants 



286 THE NEW WEST. 

to the Spanisli Missions by the Mexican Government, 
covering square leagues, were made from conquered 
property, were of the vaguest description, and would 
inevitably give rise to much litigation. Many were 
probably manufactured after the conquest of Cali- 
fornia, by enterprising brokers and speculators. The 
apparently harsh legislation which required IMexican 
owners to prove titles before a Land Commission and 
then the United States Courts, was, on the whole, a 
public benefit. The policy of every Government 
should be to treat land as different from other species 
of property, to use it for public purposes, to en- 
courage its fair subdivision and easy transfer, and 
prevent its lying useless. Cases of individual hard- 
ship and injustice there undoubtedly were, but, on the 
whole, we believe this legislation in California was 
productive of good to the whole community. 

THE VAQUEROS. 

One of the characteristic personages of this region 
is the Mexican vaqiiero, or cattle-driver, the best 
rider in the world. You will see him on his high- 
backed Spanish saddle, girt like a vice about the 
horse, with the enormous stirrup-leathers, his reata of 
cattle-hide, strong enough to hold a bull, wound around 
the pummel, with slouched hat and loose, out-stretched 
arms, cantering along lazily on his wiry mustang, and 
you would hardly take him for the horseman he is. 
But let his employer tell him that you want to see 
him catch a bull, and he is all aroused. The little 
horse springs under the spur and dashes toward a 



CATTLE DRIVERS. 287 

herd of cattle on the flat heath ; the Spaniard makes 
for a single bull, who rushes off over the plain ; the 
horse follows like the wind, but not too near — he 
knows his business perfectly. The vaqucro hurls 
the coil, and the horse throws himself back on his 
hind-legs, with his fore-legs braced forward, like a 
statue ;, in the next instant the bull is rolling over in 
the dust, with his tongue sticking out of his mouth, 
the noose fast about his neck, and the horse unmoved 
by the shock. Or tell him to catch that white-and- 
red bull yonder " by the right fore-leg." The two 
are off in a cloud of dust, tearing over the plain, the 
horse evidently enjoying the sport as much as tlie 
man. You ride after, and find under a cloud of dust 
the bull on the ground, caught by the leg you ordered, 
and the horse, without a Avord of command, keeping 
the reata just strained enough to prevent the animal's 
getting on his legs, so that, if necessary, he could be 
branded. The man and horse seem one. One of the 
favorite games of the vaquero is burying a fowl in 
the ground, with its head out, and then giving it as 
a prize to whoever will tear it from the ground, on 
the full gallop. The feats these fellows perform in 
dashing, at full speed, do^vn mountains and rough 
caOons, would amaze any civilized horseman. 

It is well known that the great wealth of large 
districts of southern California has been in cattle. 
These roamed by the tens of thousands all over the 
plains ; the only way of determining the owners was 
by driving them together every spring to a rodeo on 
a certain ranch, and having a branding. Here each 



288 THE I^EW WEST. 

owner liad his vaqiierOy and lassoed tlie cattle which 
were his, branding the calves and those whose marks 
were somewhat obliterated. The cattle without marks 
were left with the owner of the ranch on which the 
rodeo took place. With some of the owners this was 
the only time they saw their property through the 
year, until they slaughtered them ; many not knowing 
within hundreds or thousands the numbers of their 
^^ stock. '^ The brands, both of cattle and horses, are 
matters of legal description, and are controlled by law 
in California, copies, burned in leather, being required 
to be deposited in the County Recorder's office. On such 
occasions as these rodeos, the vaqueros were the great 
characters : hunting, lassoing, capturing cows, and 
struggling with bulls, and separating the armies of cattle. 

Besides Mr. Wilson's, I visited Mr. Keller's and 
M. Sansevaix's, and the Wolfskill vineyards. Each 
of these will make this year about one hundred thou- 
sand gallons of wine. Mr Keller is an exceedingly 
intelligent wine-grower. He is trying M. Pastuer's 
experiment of heating the strong wines, after the 
vinous fermentation, in order to preserve them. His 
" Madeira," a very pleasant sherry-like wine, with an 
acid taste, is prepared thus, in a chamber heated to 
(I think) over 113 degrees. I should fear the effect 
of this process on the flavor. 

The making of wine usually begins here early in 
October. Most of the vine-growers still press with 
the feet, employing Indians for the purpose, fearing 
to mash the seed in the ordinary press ; but Mr. Wil- 
son, and Koiiler & Frohling, use presses. What- 



WIT^E-PKESSTNG. 289 

ever disagreeable effects might result from treading 
out grapes with these dirty Indians^ are all removed 
by fermentation ; still it is a useless and antiquated 
method. With the white wine, the pulp is removed 
so soon as pressing has ceased, and the must let off 
into great casks or vats ; with the red, the juice is 
left on the pulp for a week or more, and thus acquires 
its red coloring. Some vintners leave the grapes on 
the vine till they are shriveled, and thus produce a 
strong red wine, like Port ; but all the red wines are 
poor. 

The " Angelica '^ is usually made by mixing one 
gallon of grape brandy with three of grape juice, 
fresh from the press. The brandy retards ferment- 
ation. Another method is to reduce the fresh juice 
about one-fourth or one-fifth by boiling, then place it 
in barrels and '^ rack " it off once or twice, till it gets 
clear. The boiling also checks fermentation. It is 
really thus a liqueur and not a wine. It contains at 
least sixteen per cent, of alcohol ; and '' Muscatel," a 
similar liqueur-wine, nineteen per cent. 

^^ Port " is made by pressing the grapes, skins, and 
stalks, and when the wine is half fermented it is 
transferred to large casks. Brandy is sometimes then 
put in to check fermentation. But the California 
grape-juice has so much alcohol that not much brandy 
is ^^ fretted in." The color is mainly due to the skins. 
I am not aware that elderberry-juice is added to give 
color, as in Oporto. All this class of wines in Cali- 
fornia are poor and very alcoholic, the per centage in 
Port being eighteen at least. 

13 



290 THE NEW WEST. 

Mr. Keller's '•'' No. 4 " white wine is one of the 
best white wines here. The ^^ Cocomungo " brand is 
made on a Spanish vineyard near Los Angeles, and 
commands a high price, but it is not a remarkable 
wine. A fair ^^ Sherry '^ is made here by Mr. Keller, 
and others, but not equal to the New York Sherry. 

The Los Angeles wines are not equal, on the whole, 
to the Sonoma, and all the arrangements of their 
vineyards are inferior. Their cellars are much poorer. 
A German settlement (of which I shall speak present- 
ly) a little south, on a much inferior soil, has already 
surpassed them in a white wine — the Anaheim, which 
is a light, pure table- wine. The Mission grape is 
used everywhere here, but M. Sansevain is already 
introducing foreign varieties with great success, and 
most of the vintagers doubt the value of the former. 
Nothing could surpass the Malaga, Muscat, and Black 
Hamburg grapes on this gentleman's vines. 

All the vineyards and orchards are copiously irri- 
gated, which is contrary to the custom of the rest of 
the State. 

It is a great pity that so much of the wine-making 
of California has been directed to what are not strictly 
wines, but are liqueurs^ or, rather, vins de liqtieur. 
Any wine with an arrested fermentation, and with 
brandy put in, is a dangerous drink 5 heady, trying to 
the stomach, laden with gout and other diseases, and 
tempting to drunkenness. Whatever healthy qualities 
a light wine may possess, and however it may conduce 
to temperance, these vms de liqueur act immediately 
in the opposite direction. It should be understood 



LIQUEUR-WII^ES. 291 

by the public that the California Angelica, and Musca- 
tel, and Port, are beverages of this description. Their 
fermentation is arrested either by boiling or by pouring 
in brandy. The Muscatel of Los Angeles tastes like 
a cold punch. The Port is perhaps no more danger- 
ous than the wine of the Old World made in a similar 
manner, yet it seems rougher and more alcoholic. 
The Angelica corresponds in its two kinds to the 
arrope of Spain, and the geropiga of Portugal. 

One vineyard — that of Kohler & Feohling, in 
Los Angeles — makes it in a somewhat different man- 
ner from that pursued by many other wine-growers. 
They allow the must to ferment to a small degree for a 
few days, and then put in the brandy. They claim 
to have reduced the proportion of alcohol to only fifteen 
per cent, in Angelica, and to considerably less than 
that of the ordinary Port in their Los Angeles Port. 

The great wonder is that Norton's Virginia Seed- 
ling is so little known in California, where almost every 
European variety of grape has been successfully in- 
troduced. No red wine has ever been produced in 
America equal to that made by the Germans of Mis- 
souri from this grape. 

A remarkable evidence of the bad name of the 
Californian wines was recently offered in San Fran- 
cisco, by a cellar full of choice wine — the Gerke wine 
— as good an article as they have ever exported, which 
had been sent to New York, and was offered there at 
a low price — I suppose three or four dollars per dozen 
— and could not be sold, so that it had to be returned. 
It was retailed in San Francisco at $12 a dozen! 



292 THE NEW WEST. 

The wine-sellers can buy their wine on a Cali- 
fornia vineyard from 35 cents to 47 cents a gallon j 
all expenses for freight, casking, leakage, etc., to New 
York, are only some 35 cents (gold), so that they can 
lay down their wine in a New York cellar for a dollar 
(currency) a gallon, or about 20 cents a bottle, and sell 
it to dealers at $2.25 a gallon, and by the box any- 
where from $6 to $12 or $15 a dozen. 

One of the greatest expenses in California are the 
casks, as the country has no native ash or oak adapted 
for these. The largest wine-maker in California told 
me that he would give a cask full of wine for every 
empty cask ; but this was in a district where casks 
were especially costly. 

In speculating over the apparent inferiority of 
California wines to European, I have wondered 
whether the defect could be in any degree due to 
climate. It is well known that the grape from which 
Sherry is made, if transplanted to the dry climate of 
the Cape of Good Hope, produces a very different 
and an inferior wine to the famous wine of Xeres. 

May not the dry and warm climate of California 
act on the grape by intensifying the essential oils, 
which are at the base of odors, and thus produce the 
peculiar and not agreeable bouquet which distinguishes 
all these wines ? It would seem as if the acetic ether 
were the strong peculiarity of this bouquet. We 
know that all odors and oils are strengthened by this 
wonderful climate. Thus the mustard is said to be 
stronger than the European mustard, the hops have a 
more astringent quality than our Eastern hops, and I 



LOS ANGELES. 293 

have myself observed the odor of musk in certam 
grapes ahnost as strong as if it were an animal product. 
It may thus be that some one essential oil which is 
formed in all wines, is here intensified and becomes 
the prevailing property. 

I throw this out merely as a suggestion. If it be 
a fact, the inventive genius of the Californian culti- 
vators will no doubt eventually overcome even this 
obstacle. 

In looking to foreign countries, one unfortunate 
analogy suggests itself; the country most resembling 
California in climate and productions, is Syria ; and 
yet Syria, though abounding in the most delicious 
grapes, has never produced a first-class wine, unless 
we except one preserved in a convent in the Leb- 
anon. 

Los Angeles is not deficient in some of the appli- 
ances or aids of civilization, despite the rather Mexi- 
can air of the towoi. There are two or three respect- 
able hotels, three or four Protestant churches, a Ko- 
man Catholic church, a number of primary and gram- 
mar and private schools, hospitals, a school and home 
of St. Vincent de Paul, and two newspapers. The 
churches, however, are said to have but little influ- 
ence, and even the police do not control the bad ele- 
ments, as would be desirable. 

A friend of mine, a well-knoAvn doctor, said he 
was crossing the plaza a moonlight night, when a 
Spaniard met him and asked him for " a light." He 
observed that the man's right arm Avas behind him, 



294 THE NEW WEST. 

and that the moonlight glimmered on cold steel. He 
politely took out a revolver, put his cigar in the end^ 
and presenting it to him while he cocked it, said 
most suavely, ^^With the utmost pleasure, Sefior ! '^ 
The ruffian vanished rapidly. 

The most charming feature of the valley is the 
climate, the spring being like the summer of Madrid, 
or 74*^, and the summer cooler than that of southern 
France, or about 67^^, with an autumn of only 5G^, 
and a winter like that of our southern coast — say 50^ 
mean. The following table is quoted by an intelli- 
gent observer in the Evening Bulletin of San Fran- 
cisco, as a record of the five hottest days in 1852: 

Sunrise. Noon. Sunset. 

August26 65-^ 84° 67^ 

August 27 65 84 67 

August28 64 84 67 

August29 65 83 66 

August 30 65 83 66 

AugustSl 64 82 G5 

During my visit, in August, the thermometer was 
about 80"^ in the middle of the day, but I was glad of 
blankets at night. At a little distance in the interior 
the heat increases fearfully. Here, it is said, field- 
work is done from January 1 to December 31, by 
laborers in shirt-sleeves. The rainy season begins in 
November, and lasts three or four months, but the 
rain -fall is not heavy ; at one point near Los Angeles, 
the Ranche del Chino, the annual fall being only 9.7 
inches. On the whole, however, I do not believe it 
is an invigorating climate, and for a Northerner, the 
north of California would be preferable. 



germa:n vineyaeds. 295 



ANAHEIM. 



Some twenty miles south of the foot of Los An- 
geles, the Germans have a beautiful little settlement 
of vineyards, among lately -planted orchards of oranges, 
figs, almonds, and olives, called Anaheim. It was 
founded by an association of Germans in 1857, the 
land — 1,100 acres — ^being divided into fifty lots, of 
twenty acres each, having a portion in the centre for 
public improvements. Eight acres in each lot were 
planted with vines. The whole cost was S 70, 000. 
Each vineyard was then sold at $1,400 to German 
vine-growers. From four to eight additional acres to 
each vineyard have been planted with vines. 

I had much conversation with the managers, and 
tasted the wine. They have not the best soil for a 
rich wine, and they are obliged to irrigate much, 
wdiich must weaken the quality of the grapes ; still, 
they have produced an unusually pleasant and light 
wine, the only one I saw which seemed to circulate 
through the State. I found it even in the Sierras, 
where it was sold at $1.00 per bottle. It cannot be 
stronger than an ordinary Rhine wine. I attempted 
to bring a box over the Isthmus, but it soured. 

Such is the bad reputation of all California wines, 
that this year, out of 400,000 gallons manufactured 
by this colony, 250,000 are stiU in bond, and the 
price ruling on the vineyards is twenty-five cents a 
gallon, or ahontfivc cents a bottle. There will be 100,- 
000 additional vines bearing in 1868, so that, despite 
the tax, the wine will have to be converted into brandy. 



296 THE NEW WEST. 

which is a misfortune to the whole region. Aad yet the 
Anaheim wine-growers cry aloud for the reduction of 
the brandy tax. Many of these are now burdened 
with heavy mortgages, and some are entirely dis- 
couraged by the results of wine-making on the Pacific 
coast. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE OIL-WELLS THE MAMMOTH GRAPE-VINE. 

I WAS aroused one morning from my state-room on 
the coast steamer, near Santa Barbara, by a strong 
smell of kerosene, and supposed that the room-lamp 
had been knocked over, but at the same time I 
heard something said about ^^ oil on the water," and 
Avent up on deck. To my surprise, I found the sea 
for miles covered with floating oil, which had the 
exact smell of petroleum. We ' were then some two 
miles from land. There was considerable swell on, 
but the captain said he had seen the sea as smooth 
as glass and covered with oil for miles at this point. 

I felt that I had now run through with all the 
CaUfornia experience. I had waded in silver mud in 
the mills at Virginia City, bathed in streams turbid 
with golden sands in the Foot Hills, and now sailed over 
petroleum seas near Santa Barbara. It was this 
phenomenon, it will be remembered, which gave the 
first impulse to the excitement in California about 
petroleum, and resulted in the formation of several 
large petroleum companies a few years since. Any one 
who recalls the furor about Pennsylvania oil-wells, 
Avhere the superficial indications were often far less 
encouraging to an unscientific eye, might well excuse 
the excitement in regard to this region. A very 
13* 



298 THE NEY\^ WEST. 

trustworthy gentleman also informed me that he had 
often known of cattle mired and lost in a substance on 
this coast which looked like thickened petroleum. 

Under the light of present experience, a scientific 
man would at once say that the presence of large 
masses of asphaltum on the surface, or even of 
flowing oil, was a presumption against the existence 
of much petroleum oil at that point. Oil fit for 
burning is not obtained when the strata are exposed 
to the air, or turned up on edge, or are only covered 
with a light detritus. There must be a superficial 
covering of rock over the oil-stratum, to confine the 
fluid, or to allow it gradually to form away from the 
atmosphere. This is always the case in Pennsylvania. 
The strata there arc generally horizontal or turned up 
at a slight angle.- The facts in regard to this cast 
seem to be that a bituminous slate-formation extends 
from Los Angeles to Cape Mendocino, with the strata 
generally turned up at a high angle.* The contor- 
tions of this slate near Santa Barbara were very 
marked. The asphaltum is often in the sandstone 
over the bituminous slate, as if it had been forced up 
by heat and pressure. In the slates themselves, as 
we learn from Prof. Whitney's report, it is somewhat 
uniformly diffused. The precise relation of asphaltum 
to petroleum is uncertain ; whether it arises from the 
thickening or oxydization of that oil, what proportion 
of the hydro-carbons in the bituminous slates evapo- 
rates on exposure, and what is oxydized to asphaltum, 
the Greological Survey agree is an entire matter of 

*Tlie State Geological Survey. 



CALIFOllT^IA PETROLEUM. 299 

uncertainty. The only thing clear is^ that the strata 
near Santa Barbara are too much exposed to the air to 
allow of much petroleum near the surface, and that 
the oil which is extracted is too thick for practical 
use. I could not doubt, from what I heard, that pure 
petroleum does sometimes come forth from some of 
the borings, but at such a depth and under such 
expense that it does not pay, commercially. Labor, 
machinery, and transport, are so high in this part of 
California, that, with the present price of oil, it is 
doubtful if a full-flowing well of oil would pay much 
j^rofit. Some of these large oil-ranches would make ex- 
cellent vineyards. 

Santa Barbara itself has one of the most beautiful 
situations in California, placed in a green valley 
opening out to the sea, between picturesque hills on 
each side, and with a fine chain of mountains in the 
background. The grand old Spanish Mission seems 
to stand guard over it, upon the hills behind. 

Near the landing, in a gentleman^s garden, is a 
beautiful product of the south of California — the Cen- 
tury Plant, or Agave Americana. It was planted 
eleven years ago, and its great leaves cover a circum- 
ference of some sixty feet, while its top is some forty 
feet high. It is in splendid flower. These magueys 
grow freely here, and will make fine hedges. They are 
indigenous in San Diego. An intelligent botanical 
authority in the Bulletin says : 

" When the maguey in Mexico is in large forests, and at the time 
the capsule and column dries up, nothing can exceed the monotony 



300 THE NEW WEST. 

and tristeria of a forced journey through its precincts, from its long, 
ghost-like, bleached columns, full of hundreds of fruit- vessels, shak- 
ing and rustling in the winds of the arid mesas of that country. 
The small maguey of our State, called kihote by the natives, and which 
bears on its column hundreds of snow-white blossoms, has been 
planted in several gardens of Santa Barbara since 18G5, but none of 
them had flowered in 18G7. They are said to mature in five years 
in these districts. As this plant is found in the inner ranges of 
Contra Costa, there is no doubt it could be grown in the Oakland 
gardens." 

One of the most formidable liedges in the State is 
the cactus, which grows here some twenty feet high. 
I attempted to eat the fruit — the puma — without suf- 
ficient warning or preparation, and filled my mouth 
with the minute thorns. The Mexican gathering it 
used leather shields for his fingers in handling the 
fruit. It had a sweet, watery taste, and is greatly 
prized here ; but to a Northerner, the tropical and 
semi-tropical fruits are far inferior in delicacy and 
flavor to northern fruits. 

The pests of this region are the various ground- 
rodents, the gophers, field-mice, and ground-squirrels. 
Whole fields are stripped by them of grain, and or- 
chards of oranges and other fruit destroyed. They can 
only be exterminated by poison. I know one farmer 
vfhe spends $250 per annum on strichnine and other 
poisons, for these burrowers. The dry summers enable 
them to bring to maturity their numerous offspring. 

The old ignorant Avarfare against hees has been com- 
menced here, the vintagers believing that tliese in- 
dustrious little creatures destroy their grapes and ripe 
fruit. The increase of this insect is one of those 
striking evidences which California so often presents, 



BEES. 301 

of the enormous production of one form of life, when 
once introduced to this genial climate. Before 1853, 
not a honey-hee had ever crossed the Sierras or Salt 
Basin to the Pacific slope (which in itself is a some- 
what singular fact). A Mr. Shelton in that year intro- 
duced the first hive. Even in 1857 a hive would often 
sell for $100 or $200. The bees increased so rapidly 
that the business of bee-producing soon ceased to pay, 
and the insects took flight to the mountains and forests. 
Now all the woods and hiUs of the State are full of 
wild bees, and the Mexicans and hunters get their 
wax and honey for nothing. 

A one-year hive will often produce thirty pounds of 
liquid honey, and two pounds of clean wax 5 and a 
single family, says a good authority, will often throw 
off ten sivarms annually. In no distant time, honey 
and wax must be one of the exports of the south of 
California, 

One of the great plagues throughout California to 
the cattle-breeder, is a species of mullen — the teazle- 
burr. Each plant is of the size of a blackberry, and 
contams some hundred burrs, which adhere continually 
to the tails and fleece of sheep and to cattle. It 
covers here thousands of acres, and is a perpetual 
torment to the cattle-breeders. The woolen factories 
in San Francisco have distinct machinery for crush- 
ing and combing out these burrs. 

Despite the destruction by the fearful drought of 
1862, both among cattle and sheep, there were in 
1867, in this county, 11,090 head of horn stock, and 
104,000 sheep ; and in land, 46,000 acres were under 



302 THE NEW WEST. 

ctiltivation. The grape-vines numbered 230,000 ; 
olive-trees, 11,100 ; walnuts, 7,400; almonds, 8,550 ; 
and figs, 2,200. In silk- worms, the crop for 1867 
was some 400,000 cocoons. 

There have been sales recently of large ranches 
around Santa Barbara, which will give an idea of the 
prices of land in Southern California. Thus two 
ranches, the old Noriega Rancho of San Julian, of 
eleven leagues, and La Epada, of two leagues, cover- 
ing 53,000 acres, sold together for $83,000, or say at 
$1.25 an acre ; much of it excellent pasture-land, and 
some being good arable soil. One-half of Sonata, or 
13,300 acres, brought $8,000, and so on with over 
130,000 acres, the most of it being sold from $1 to 
$2 per acre, though some brought from $8 to $10. 
There were also sold about 1,000 acres of a farm of 
Mr. Hill, the old Mission garden lands, capable of pro- 
ducing olives, almonds, oranges, lemons, figs, cotton, 
tobacco, hops, beans, and corn — in fact almost every 
fruit and vegetable, near a beautiful sea-beach, and at 
an average price of fourteen dollars an acre. 

The production of butter and cheese is increasing 
here, and there are now some cheese factories near 
the town. 

Among other productions, oTcra and sweet potatoes 
are grown very successfully in Santa Barbara. 

One of the wonders of California is a mammoth 
grape-vine at Montecito, near this place. It was 
planted by a lady, Donna de Dominguez, over sixty- 
five years ago, from a slip which she had cut in Mon- 
terey County for a horsewhip. It is trained on a 



MAMMOTH GRAPE- VII^E. 303 

trellis about ten feet from the ground, and now covers a 
space, as I measured it, of ninety-three feet by about 
fifty. The circumference of the trimk, five inches 
from the ground, was three feet and a half inches ; 
and eight feet high just below the branches it meas- 
ured four feet and three inches. It bears about eight 
thousand pounds of grapes per annum, and is said to 
almost support the family which own it. There are 
several vineyards in this region, also, and many groves 
of orange, lemon, olive and almond-trees. But here, 
as everywhere, the Mission grape is too much in use, 
from which a good Avine can seldom be made. 

The people are very anxious to be relieved from the 
tax on native brandy ; but I trust that they will not 
be by the coming or any other Congress. No article 
is a more legitimate subject for taxation ; it is mainly 
a luxury, and a deleterious one. If not taxed, much 
of the wine of the country will be turned into it. On 
the much-disputed question of the influence of light 
wines as checking intemperance, I have no doubt, 
from much observation of wine countries, especially of 
Hmigary, that they act on a broad scale in this direc- 
tion, though naturally with many exceptions. But 
truth compels me to say that thus far native wines in 
California have had no such desirable effect ; perhaps, 
first, because light wines are not much made here ; and 
second, because Californians do not drink their own 
wines if they can help it. Here and in Los Angeles, 
where wine could be sold at a profit for ten cents a 
bottle, no person in the hotel or on the boat called for 
wine at his meals, but instead, immediately after, 



304 THE NEW WEST. 

every one rushed to the bar for raw whisky. "With 
such habits, dyspepsia and indigestion are naturally 
common. 

Such is the sluggishness of this southern population 
in California, that in a country, the most blessed by 
nature in the world, they do not raise enough wheat 
for themselves, and have not a single flour-mill. Our 
steamer brought a quantity of flour for the town, and 
had to land it in boats after a very tedious fashion, no 
one in Santa Barbara having had enterprise enough 
to employ a lighter. 

The want of good harbors for these southern towns 
is a great obstacle to their progress ; but a greater is 
the want of what the people call "live men." The 
most energetic man on the whole coast is, as I men- 
tioned before. Gen. Banning, of Wilmington. 

One vigorous and interesting experiment, however, 
is being made here by Messrs. Packard & Goux in 
silk-worms. They have 4,000 thrifty mulberry- trees, 
and 6,000 more are planted near the town from their 
nurseries. The produce this season is about 300,000 
cocoons of excellent quality. Everything promises 
success to this important experiment. 

With all the social drawbacks no part of California 
offers more material inducements to the farmer and 
horticulturist than does this southern section. Good 
land can be bought cheap anywhere from $2 to $50 
an acre, according to location, and everything, almost, 
that man wants, can be produced upon it — every fruit 
or product of the semi-tropical and temperate zones 



QUESTION- OF TEMPEEANCE. 305 

The climate is healthy ; there is regular connection by 
daily stage in seventy-two hours with San Francisco^ 
and a tri-monthly steamer in forty-eight hours. 
The Southern Pacific Railroad will eventually pass 
here. The country only needs more Yankees to be 
the best part of the State. 

In regard to the great question of temperance in 
this State, it seems to me unwise for the moral com- 
munity to throw itself into a struggle with such an 
important horticultural interest as vine-growing. 
California is as certain to be a vast vine-growing and 
wine-making State as France. All the conditions of 
its soil and climate point to this as one of the most 
natural and profitable branches of production of the 
State. No moral opposition could sensibly affect it. 
Furthermore, the drunkenness of the State (which 
especially in the mining towns and in the south is 
lamentable), does not come from Avine-drinking. It is 
the result of heavy drinking of brandy and whisky. 
Now, assuming the universality of this appetite for 
alcoholic stimulus, and admitting (as most are ready 
to do) that a light wine is healthful and promotive of 
digestion, would it not be the part of a wise legislator, 
and even a moralist, to endeavor to check the heavy 
drinking by introducing or encouraging the taste for 
light beverages ? Would not temperance in a wine 
country, such as California, be best promoted by in- 
ducing the vine-growers to make a light, pure wine, 
and by discouraging the use of brandy and whisky ? 
To expect total abstinence in a country where wine 



306 THE NEW WEST. 

is tliirty-five cents a gallon, seems almost as absurd 
as to inculcate it at Bordeaux or in Johannisberg. 
The increased use of brandy can at once be checked 
by Congress continuing the Internal Revenue Tax. 
And instead of petitioning Congress for its removal, 
all public-spirited Californians should unite to request 
its continuance. A pure light wine can be made if 
the public demand it. Any effects on the people, 
from such a course as is proposed, must naturally be 
distant, but it is the coming generation that alone can 
be influenced by true temperance. Wine will never 
take the place of whisky with old topers. But, on the 
broad scale, we may reasonably believe that the use 
of light Avines in California will in future years pro- 
mote self-restraint in drinking, as it has done in Hun- 
gary, Germany and France, as compared with Sweden, 
Scotland and England, where these wines cannot 
easily be obtained. Thus far, as I have before re- 
marked, California gives us no data for conclusions. 
The course of all reformers and friends of the public 
good here on this question must be shaped by experi- 
ence elsewhere. That points, it seems to me, in but 
one direction. 

On the argument made by the vine-growers, that the 
refuse or pomace left after the grapes have been 
pressed, must be turned into brandy, and that this, if 
untaxed, will give them sufficient profit to enable them 
to sell cheap light wines, but that otherwise they can 
not sell cheap wines, the following remarks are ap- 
pended, made by the writer in a city journal. 



POMACE BRxVITDY. 307 

'^It is well knoTVTi to all wine-growers that tlie sub- 
stance left after tlie grape-juice is pressed out — the 
jwmace — is not fit to make even common brandy. It 
does not contain sufficient alcohol, and has a rough 
offensive flavor. The consequence is that whisky, or 
rectified spirits, have to be added to it, and when dis- 
tilled, a most villainous compound is formed, which 
acts especially on the coating of the stomach and the 
nervous system. Physicians say that more delirium 
tremens is caused by this cheap pomace brandy, w^hich 
is sold under the name of ^French brandy,' than from 
almost any other cause. 

^^If to doctored Ports and, in New York, watered 
Hocks and brandied Angelicas, were added the poison of 
pomace brandy as a California product, the last end of 
the California wine-trade would be reached. The difH- 
cidty with the wine business of California is not the 
expense of production, nor the low prices ruling. 
Even with wine at 50 cents (gold) a gallon, on the 
vineyard, the wine-growers could make money enough. 
The trouble is that such is the bad reputation of the Cal- 
ifornia wines for impurity and carelessness of making, 
that the public do not tvant them at all. As the CaH- 
fornia papers admit, there are himdreds of thousands 
of gallons now in cask on the different vineyards which 
cannot be sold at 25 cents a gallon. The real fault has 
no doubt often been with the wine-merchants, and with 
the New York agents, but often also on the vineyards. 
The true remedy is not to produce a poisonous and 
cheap brandy of the grape-refuse, but to make better 
ivines. If the California wines were what they ought 



308 THE IS-EW WEST. 

to be, millions of gallons could be profitably sold 
here. 

^'We consider brandy a luxury, and a deleterious 
luxury, and therefore it should pay a heavy proportion 
of the national taxation, and we trust Congress will 
not lighten its burdens for the Pacific States. '' 

SANTA CLARA VALLEY. 

The Santa Clara Valley, in which San Jose is situ- 
ated, is a lovely valley, highly cultivated, and with 
one of the most delicious climates in the world. The 
moist and adobe soil of the center of the plain, how- 
ever, is not the best for producing a good wine, though 
it is green with vineyards. The best wines are made 
on the red clay, mixed with gravel and limestone, on 
the neighboring hills. 

I visited a number of large vineyards here ; some 
are for sale as low as $1.25 per acre. The wide-plant- 
ing is becoming the practice of the State, but Gen. 
Naglee, who has a superb place here, is trying the 
narrow system — the three-feet division. So far as I 
saw, no really good wines are made in the valley ; all 
were rough and heady. The Almaden hills may yet 
produce, however, some fair white wines. The county 
is estimated to have 1,000,000 vines. In examining 
such a place as Gen. Naglee's, one sees what a satis- 
faction there must be in California in setting out 
grounds. Such shrubbery is not to be found in the 
world 5 such numerous and beautiful varieties. On 
this place there were shrubs from Japan and China, 
trees from AustraHa, evergreens from this coast, and 



QUICKSILVER MIXES. SCO 

flowers and fruit from every climate^ all flourishing as 
they can nowhere else in the world. It really repays 
to garden in California. 

NEW-ALIVIADEN MINES. 

I visited, while in the Santa Clara Valley, the 
famous quicksilver mines of New-Almaden. They 
are about thirteen miles from San Jose^ on a range of 
hills some 1,500 feet above the valley. The rocks in 
which the cinnabar is found, are magnesian schists. 
We ascended to the opening of the mine by a care- 
fully-graded road, some three miles. Here half a 
dozen of us were put on an ore-car, and pushed by 
hand through a level some eight hundred feet long, 
into the center of the mountain, where we entered a 
large chamber, made by the removal of the cinnabar. 
From this a vertical shaft descended nearly three 
hundred feet. The lower part of the mine is reached 
by ladders in various openings or cavities, which com- 
municate with one another by narrow passages. The 
bucket is also used for descent. One of these de- 
scending passages is forty feet high and seventy feet 
broad. The galleries are frequently heavily timbered, 
to sustain the rock above. 

Owing to the low price of quicksilver in the 
markets of the world, the production is by no means 
so extensive here as it has been. I believe a large 
portion of the laborers were then out of employment. 
The ores are usually extracted by contract, the price 
paid being from $3 to $5 per carga of 300 pounds. 
The laborers are mostly Mexicans. 



310 THE NEW WEST. 

The mercury is extracted from the ores by con- 
densation. The only preparation is breaking them by 
hand, in order to remove the unproductive rock. 
They are then thrown into brick furnaces, capable of 
holding from G0,000 to 110,000 pounds. The 
chambers are heated from a furnace on the side, with 
wood fuel, and separated by a wall of brick pierced 
with openings. The product of combustion is forced 
through alternate chambers above and below, until ail 
the mercury is condensed. The furnaces are built on 
double arches of brickwork and plates of iron, to catch 
all falling particles of the metal. Formerly, much 
was lost in the earth. 

The metal begins to run in from four to six hours 
after the fires are lighted, and in about 60 hours it is 
discharged through the various condensing chambers 
into large kettles, v/here it is all ready for market. 

The total product of this mine, in 1865, was 47,078 
flasks, or 3,604,465 pounds of quicksilver. The ex- 
port during the last six months was 12,716 flasks, 
worth $423,290, or a decrease of 5,711 flasks, and of 
value, $253,102 since 1866. Of these 12,716 flasks 
some 9,000 were exported to South America. 

The whole landed estate of the company is over 
twelve square miles, of which about one-third is 
mineral ground. There are over 400 buildings and 
workshops on the property. The New-Almaden mine 
is now, we believe, the largest quicksilver mine in the 
Avorld. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 

Most people who come here from the eastern coast^ 
and who think at all on the matter, are inclined to 
depreciate the resources of California. This is cer- 
tainly the tendency among scientific men. It is 
partly the result of the exaggerated claims made by 
Californians, and the universal flattery which is em- 
ployed toward them and their State in pubKc ad- 
dresses, so that thoughtful persons come to doubt 
that which is so loudly boasted of. Then the first 
aspect of the State, especially in summer, is not en- 
couraging 5 the brown and burnt hills, and the dusty 
roads running through wide sections of her apparently 
barren plains, seem to promise anything but plentiful 
harvests, or agricultural wealth. Moreover, there are 
great obstacles apparent which seem certain to impede 
a rapid development in the State. One is the want 
of good coal, which is a necessity of life in industrial 
progress ; another, the liability of the country to ex- 
cessive drouths, which destroy both cattle and crops ; 
and most of aU, the vast distance of the interior from 
large markets. To these must be added the high 
price of labor, and the extravagant habits induced by 
gold-mining and its gambling successes, so that pro- 
duction becomes very costly, and could hardly be ex- 
pected to compete with the closely-managed and eco- 



312 THE NEW WEST. 

nomical production of the Eastern coast, or the pro- 
ductive agriculture of the central West. 

Moreover, capital has been scarce, and commanded 
immense prices, owing to expected profits in the 
mines, or the sale of citj real estate, so that large 
production, demanding borrowed capital, in agriculture 
and manufactures, could hardly have been looked for. 

With all these obstacles and natural impediments, 
however, California has entered on a career of de- 
velopment which, in another decade, will astonish the 
Union. I fully believe there is no such creation of 
wealth going on anywhere else in the United States, 
and that nowhere else in the world is there so great a 
proportion of savings to each producer. 

And yet, thus far, there are no railroads to open 
thousands of fertile valleys, and only about half the 
population of New York city and its suburbs to work 
all this great territory. The expectations from the 
Pacific Railroad among the people are greatly ex- 
aggerated. It can never be a line of through-freight, 
except in small and valuable parcels. For all her 
great products, California will be no nearer market 
than before. But there will undoubtedly be a great 
local market opened in the mining regions, and per- 
haps even as far as Salt Lake, so that the western 
half of the continent will be fed and clothed and sup- 
plied with luxuries from the Pacific coast. But the 
great advantage to California from this important 
route will be the supply it will afford of cheap labor, 
A laborer may be landed in San Francisco from New 
York for $40 or $50, and wages will at once find 



ADVANTAGES FOE PRODUCTION 313 

their level on the two coasts. Production, then, will 
be immensely cheapened throughout the State. The 
want of labor, thus far, has been marvelously supplied 
by an accidental immigration from the far East, of the 
Chinese. "Without these useful workers, California 
would at this day be scarcely more than Nevada — a 
great mining-ground, whose wealth all flows away. 
Few manufactures would have been started, or large 
arms worked ; the rich would have emigrated, the 
export of wheat have never commenced, and the 
Pacific Road could not have been built over the 
Sierras. With Chinese labor and the immeasurable 
advantages of climate, the Californian farmer is able 
now to compete in the markets of the world v/ith the 
farmers of Illinois and Indiana, and the peasants of the 
Black Sea, thoagh his distance from market may be 
some 10,000 miles or more. 

It must be remembered that nature gives the culti- 
vator of the ground a great start here over his com- 
petitors in foreign countries. The farmer need sel- 
dom shelter his harvest ; he leaves the grain-stack 
in the open air, assured that until November it will 
escape any rain. He is saved the expense of large 
barns and the carrying the crop to and fro. He need be 
under no hurry in harvesting, for showers never come, 
and thus haste and waste are spared. His wheat, 
owing to the dry climate, is dry and glutinous, keep- 
ing sweet long, and makes the best flour in the world. 
t' Stock " being cheap, he can have heavy teams, and 
on the level fields do a great deal of machine -work, 
even using steam occasionally for threshing. His 
14 



314 THE NEW WEST. 

Chinese labor costs him no more than Irish labor does 
in the West, and though it may be less efficient, it is 
more regular and certain, while he himself, owing to 
the climate, can work a third or fourth more than his 
Eastern or Western competitor. The snow or rain 
interrupts him but little, and ague or disease seldom 
cripples him. 

Most of all, nature gives him a far greater product 
than it does the farmer of older States. He will often 
take fifty, sixty, even eighty bushels of wheat to the 
acre, and will sometimes reap forty bushels of ^ ' volun- 
teer crop^' where he has not sown, and can even gather 
his forty bushels of ^^ volunteer" barley for three years 
without sowing or cultivating. The average yield 
through the State, on bad land and good, is about 
twenty-four bushels, while that of the West is fifteen 
bushels. 

No cultivator in the world, moreover, can have 
so many different products to turn to ; beside his 
wheat and barley, he can plant flax, hemp, Indian 
corn, and potatoes, raise every variety of vegetables, 
or have his orchards of peaches, apricots, plums, pears, 
cherries, apples, almonds, olives, and. figs ; or he can 
raise English walnuts or peanuts, or plant vineyards 
which in five years are quite sure to bring him in 
from $300 to $500 an acre in wine, and even more in 
raisins. He has no hay to cut, for his cattle and horses 
^can feed on the wild oats all the year round, or, if he 
must have some stored, he can cut it from land other- 
wise of no value ; or he can feed stock from wheat-straw. 



INCEEASING CAPITAL. 315 

There are, indeed, as I have mentioned before, ob- 
stacles to his getting this crop to market, in the want 
of elevators, and grain-bins, and railroads. These, 
however, will soon be overcome. Such have been the 
profits of agriculture and commerce, that capital is 
accumulating in San Francisco, and interest on long 
loans is down to ten per cent, per annum. This sur- 
plus capital will soon be directing itself to railroads 
and conveniences for transporting grain. The saving 
on sacks alone will make a difference of ten per cent, 
to the farmer on the cost of production, and the cheap- 
ening of freights by railways will make an incredible 
difference — in fact, will open rich valleys which now 
can send nothing to market. Then the transport by 
sea is always a great advantage, as compared with 
land transport. It is said that the freight on wheat 
now, from San Francisco to Liverpool, is no more than 
from Chicago to the same point. As this port becomes 
more known as a grain-exporting port, and buys more 
directly from the foreign markets, freights will be 
cheaper. England is evidently to be the great market 
for California wheat. It can hardly compete with 
Western wheat on the New- York market, except in 
years of short harvest. 

Seventeen years ago, Mr. Webstee, in a famous 
oration, ventured to predict that California not only 
did not then, but never could, produce one-fourth or 
even one-tenth of the agricultural products of Illinois. 
In uttering this prediction, he merely expressed the 
opinions of most intelligent men who had resided here. 



316 THE NEW WEST. 

But California already, with (I suppose) one-third of 
the population, produces some 12,000,000 to 15,000- 
000 bushels of wheat annually, which is nearly half 
the yield of Illinois ; while in barley she produces 
four times as much, and in fruit she probably now 
equals her. Moreover, California's produce of wheat 
this year is some 25 bushels to each inhabitant, while 
that of the Western States (if the ratio of 1860 be 
preserved) is only 10 bushels, and that of Illinois about 
14 bushels ; and of the Middle States only 3§ bushels. 
During the six months of 1867, ending June 30, 
California exported in flour, 317,924 barrels, valued 
at $1,958,619, being an increase of 161,058 barrels, 
and of $962,479 in value over the same period last 
year. Of this amount the largest quantity was sent to 
New York— 190,486 barrels, value, $1,222,219, 
against 22 barrels last year! China took 55,247 
barrels, worth $312,896 ; Great Britain, 34,282 
barrels, worth $193,589; Brazil, 14,508 barrels, 
worth $84,280; Central America, 6,504 barrels; and 
the East Indies 5,500 barrels. Australia, which 
took a large amount the year before, took none this 
year, while Brazil and the East Indies are new 
customers. In wheat, the export is 2,012,713 sacks, 
worth $3,940,103, which is an increase of 1,366,647 
sacks, and in value of $2,567,552 Great Britain is 
the great customer, taking 1,456,584 sacks, against 
38,383 last year, and our coast 447,538 sacks, against 
86,764 in 1866 ; while Australia takes 3,534 sacks, 
against 409,978 last year, and China receives less by 



EXPORTS. 317 

54,537. There is a new customer in Spain to tlie 
amount of 8,474 sacks. 

The export of barley for six months in 1866 was 
208,526 sacks of 100 pounds*, in the last six months, 
there has been a temporary falling off, the export 
being 63,484 sacks, valued at S60,426. Of oats, 
4,310 sacks were exported; of hides, 39,545, valued 
at $6,782, during the last six months ; of tallow, 825 
packages; of quicksilver, 12,710 flasks, valued at 
$423,028, of which the largest sale was in Australia, 
and the next in Peru. In this last there is a reduc- 
tion of 5,720 flasks, and of $252,974 in value, com- 
pared with six months in 1866. Of copper, the export 
for this period is 3,554 tons, valued at $222,148, 
which is a falling oif in value since 1866 of $451,640. 
In wines the export is 2,239 packages, valued at $63,- 
389, which is a decrease of value since 1866 of $30,- 
398. In wool, the export is 2,123,172 pounds, val- 
ued at $393,201 — an increase in pounds of 25,289; 
in lumber, 71,975,000 feet were exported. 

A financial writer makes the following estimate 
of the value of a few of this year's main produc- 
tions : 

Wheat, 7,000,000 sacks |15,000,000 

Barley, 9,000,000 sacks 5,600,000 

Oats, 1,500,000 sacks 2,200,000 

Wool, 8,000,000 lbs 2,(^00,0(;0 

Other products 4,000,000 

Total agricultural $28,000_ 000 

Wine, it is supposed, will reach 3,500,000 gallons 
this year. 



318 THE NEW WEST. 

It is believed that 150,000 acres of new land wiU 
be put in wheat during 1868, and that the crops wiU 
reach 20,000,000 bushels. 

The interesting fact about the figures given above is 
the unexpected opening of some new market as an old 
one fails. If Australia has a good harvest and ceases to 
demand so much as she has done, our eastern coast 
suddenly calls for flour ; if China fails. Great Britain 
takes her place ; and even remote Spain comes as a 
customer to the Pacific coast. It must be remembered, 
there is no exact limit in Europe or in the East to the 
consumption of wheat. The line of white-bread eat- 
ing may continually descend in Great Britain, and 
France, and Germany, as the production of wheat is 
cheapened or as the consumption of foreign products 
by our own people enables foreigners to buy of us. 
Our high protective tariff will undoubtedly tend to 
diminish the export of cereals to foreign countries. 

In Japan and China the consumption of our wheat 
or flour depends mainly on the quantity of the rice 
crop. If this be small and the price high, the people 
turn to American wheat. It is hoped that the return- 
emigration of Chinese laborers may make the taste 
for our flour more popular, and to become one of the 
wants of the Oriental population. 

In ten years, we believe, California will be the 
leading wheat-growing State in the American Union. 
She will produce this year from fifteen to twenty mil- 
lions of bushels, with a farming population of prob- 
ably not more than two hundred thousand. There are 
nimibers of rich valleys that are not even scratched 



SILK-GROWING. 319 

with the plow as yet. Thousands of acres of the best 
wheat land in America have yet to be developed, es- 
pecially in the south. It is estimated that the arable 
land in the State is 50,000,000 acres ; there are under 
cultivation only about 7,000,000 acres. It needs only 
an immigration of laborers and small farmers to cause 
such a harvest to wave on these brown hills, as is no- 
where else seen on this continent. 

SILK-GROWING. 

Among the undeveloped sources of wealth in Cali- 
fornia, must be enumerated silk-growing — a branch 
still in its infancy, but full of promise for the future. 
Wheat, wine, wool, and silk, we believe, are to be the 
important products of this State^ outside of the mine- 
ral production. Public attention all over the world 
has been much called to the advantages of California 
in raising silk-worms, from the dreadful disease raging 
throughout the silk-growing countries among the silk- 
worms, owing to bad feeding, over-crowding, a too 
damp atmosphere, and variable temperature. Even 
Japan sends out now infected eggs. 

All those experienced in the science of silk-worm 
raising agree that the climate of California is un- 
equaled in the world in adaptation to this branch. Ex- 
periments have been making now for a number of 
years in this matter, under the guidance of an en- 
thusiastic, public-spirited horticulturist, a Frenchman, 
M. Prevost, of San Jose, who deserves something 
better of the State than medals. I visited his co- 
coonery in San Jose. His experience is that the 



320 THE NEW WEST. 

great advantage of tlie climate here more than makes 
up for tile higher price of labor, and he believes that 
the production can be carried on nearly as cheaply as 
in France or Italy. Thus, in Europe, dampness, rain, 
electricity and sudden change of temperature, kill 
from twenty-five per cent, to seventy-five per cent, of 
the worms. Here the dry and rainless atmosphere 
and equable temperature are such that few ever 
perish. Then the quality of the worm and the silk 
depends on its food. But nowhere do the mulberry- 
trees produce such rich vegetation as in this wonder- 
ful climate, and the silk-worms thrive accordingly. 
M. Prevost, too, has discovered that here branches 
are a better food than leaves (the European custom 
being to give the latter), and by providing this there 
is a considerable saving of labor. He finds, also, 
that there is no necessity of artificial heat to hatch 
the eggs ; he has only to transfer them from his cellar 
to his garret, and the warm sun on the roof does 
the work. Nor is any artificial process needed to 
stifle the chrysalis before the silk is reeled off; he 
has only to expose the cocoon to the powerful rays of 
the sun for a few hours and the cocoon is ready for 
sale or for the spinner. The lustre of the silk, which 
is often so much injured by the baking of the cocoons 
in Europe, is thus preserved in all its brilliancy. M. 
Prevost states that the worm remains in a chrysalis 
state in California from twelve to fourteen days, in 
France, twenty-one, and in India, eleven days. 

A considerable portion of the foreign silk-grower^s 
time is spent in preventing diseases among the worms, 



SILK-WOKMS. 321 

and much has been written on the subject, but here 
diseases are almost unknown. It seems not improba- 
ble that under the wonderfully favorable atmosphere 
of this coast, a new and improved variety of cocoon 
will be gradually produced. The California eggs are 
already highly valued by foreign silk-growers. M. 
Prevost produces several millions of eggs each sea- 
son (one ounce of eggs containing some 40,000), and 
they are all sold and engaged for years to come at the 
rate of $5 per oimce. He could sell them by the 
hundreds of pomids if he could spare them. He has 
received one order from Mexico, and one for one 
hundred pounds from Italy. He raised, himself, in 
one year 100,000 wormxS and as many cocoons — a 
work in France for eight persons. His great effort 
has been, however, to scatter eggs and cocoons 
through the State, where he has given away great 
numbers of them. Numerous individuals — it is said as 
many as one thousand — throughout California, are now 
at work on the experiment of raising silk-worms. 
All are successful, the largest cocooneries being at 
Santa Barbara. M. Prevost has tried the Chinese 
variety of cocoon (the yellow), the Japanese (the 
white), and one imported from France. The latter 
seems to be the best. There was nothing in the plan 
of the cocoonery of M. Prevost of special value, the 
great point seeming to be to keep the eggs cool and 
dry till they are put in a warm place to hatch, and 
then to give the worms plenty of pure air, good food, 
and to leave them imdisturbed in their different stages 
of growth. The details are the same as in the like 
14* 



32'2 THE NEW WEST. 

branches in Europe. Great care has to be taken 
against insects and mice. 

Each female is expected to lay about 300 eggs^ 
though here she often produces 450. An ounce 
of eggs can produce 165 pounds of cocoons. It 
is estimated that an acre of trees will produce 
anywhere from 40 to 500 pounds of silk, at a cost 
not exceeding $2.25 a pound. One hundred pounds 
of leaves are calculated to produce one pound of 
reeled silk. An acre of trees ought in four years 
to yield from 50,000 to 00,000 pounds of leaves, 
which would be 500 pounds of silk, worth some 
$3,500 — a good profit if it ever be realized. These 
calculations must call up in the minds of my readers 
the estimates of the mines of wealth, which so many 
thousands of our citizens once thought laid up in the 
mulberry-trees. But it is to be borne in mind we 
planted the trees and raised the worms in a very dif- 
ferent climate from this. Silk-culture could never be 
an important interest on our coast ; but this region 
has all the conditions for it except one, and that is, 
cheap labor. This last may be afforded by Chinese, 
or by women and children working in their own farm- 
houses, as M. Prevost's plan is to induce each house- 
holder to have his own cocoonery, and perhaps reel 
his own silk. The Californians seem taking hold of 
the matter Avith characteristic energy and inventive- 
ness. Nowhere do mulberry-trees grow as quickly 
and vigorously — the variety preferred being the Morus 
MoretH, which originated in Pavia. The silk pro- 
duced on its leaves has a superior gloss and finer 



SILK- MAKING. ■ 323 

quality than common silk. Some 4^000,000 trees are 
said already to have been planted in the State. 
What is needed now, it seems to me, is some public 
and pecuniary encouragement by the State to such a 
man as M. Prevost (who has sacrificed considerable 
means in these public-spirited efforts), to enable him 
thoroughly to demonstrate the possibility and success 
of silk-growing on this coast. It is possible the effort 
may succeed without public help, but the first pro- 
moter of an interest of such vast importance deserves 
honorable recognition. We are glad to see that the 
Legislature of 1868 has appropriated a premium of 
$250 for cultivating 5,000 mulberry trees for silk cul- 
ture, and $300 for every 100,000 silk-cocoons pro- 
duced in good merchantable condition. It is believed 
that 2,000,000 cocoons were bred in the State in 
1868; about 200,000 were sold, and about 1,000 
ounces of eggs, at $4 per ounce. A silk factory is 
already being erected at San Jose, with machinery for 
reeling, cleaning, drilling, and twisting, and -with thir- 
ty-five hand-looms for weaving broad silks, which are 
fitted with double sets of harness ; the company design 
especially to manufacture a rich black taffetas, or arm- 
azine, of a quality that cannot be imported, and, when 
ordered, to make the same in colors. It is expected 
that the Californian ladies will be able shortly to sport 
such silks as are known now only by tradition, and 
whose only defect will be that they never wear out ; 
most foreign silks, as is Avell known, being so adulter- 
ated in dyeing, or made so light, or mingled so with 
cotton, as to be little serviceable. To those who smile 



334 THE NEW WEST. 

at sucli promises as only California boastings, tlie 
people may well appeal to what tliey Lave done in 
woolens ; for, certainly, no imported or native blanket 
can approach in quality, in fineness, and softness, and 
thickness, the ^'mission blanket ^' of San Francisco. 

San Jose may yet become the Lyons of the Pacific 
coast, and a new stream of wealth flow into the 
country from its silk manufacture. 

We already hear of silk- worm-growers from France 
and Italy establishing themselves in California in 
order to obtain the remarkable variety of cocoons and 
eggs produced here. 

The producing of eggs is even more profitable than 
raising worms for silk, as after selling the eggs, the 
cocoons can be retained for silk-velvet, &c. 

The following are M. Prevost's instructions to 
silk-growers : 

" Select your Cocoons prom the Eggs. — For seed, the very best 
cocoons should be selected ; that is, those which are of the largest size 
and feel firm and are of a bright color ; and so far as jjossible, an equal 
number of males and females; the male cocoons are slender, depressed 
in the middle, and pointed at both ends ; the female cocoons are of a 
larger size and of a rounder form, and resemble in shape a hen's egg. 
" If we keep selecting carefully our very best cocoons for seed, it is 
my opinion^ and also that of other competent silk-growers, that under 
our fine climate, so very favorable to silk culture, within a few years, 
we will obtain a California variety, that will surpass in size and 
quality all the varieties known and cultivated now. 

*' After having stripped the floss-, they may be strung together by 
threads, bemg careful not to pierce the cocoon, and hung up to the 
wainscot in festoons ; or placed in a single layer in open paper boxes, 
on shelves or tables, in a darkened, retired, warm and airy place; 
and from twelve to fifteen days from the time they complete spinning, 
according to the warmth of the season, the moth emerges from ths 
cocoon, in the shape of a large butterfly, of a grayish-white color, 



gILK-GEOWING. 325 

witli four wings, two eyes, and two feathery plumes or horns. The 
male usually appears first, and is known by his smaller size and a 
continual flutter of his wings. The female is of a larger size, of a 
whiter color, and seldom moves. These are to be paired, and then 
removed by their wings to sheets of paper spread on tables or boards, 
where they are to be left in darkness, as when complete, the silkv^^orm 
is a night insect. 

" They generally come out of the cocoons in the morning, between 
seven and nine o'clock, when you have to be there and see that they 
are aH paired ; otherwise, your eggs would not be good for anything. 
Those that are paired you take by the wings, being careful not to 
hurt or separate them ; you put them on the papers, and tliose that 
are not paired, you take them, males and females, and put them 
together on a separate sheet of paper, and they will soon get paired 
there ; and when they are, you take them and put them with the 
others. 

*' Sometimes, among the paired ones, a male or more gets loose, and 
as soon as you see this you must take them off, because they would 
disturb the others, and cause many of them to get loose also ; and it 
is important that they should not be disturbed. You put these loose 
ones, male and female, back with the unpaired ones, so that they may 
all get paired again. 

" After they are all paired you leave them in their dark place till 
about four or five o'clock in the afternoon, when you have to separate 
them. For that purpose, take the wings of the male in one hand, and the 
wings of the female with the other ; draw them apart gently, so as 
not to hurt them ; place the males in a box, and the females on the 
table or cloth on which you wish to have them lay their eggs. 

*' Most of the females begin to lay as soon as separated from the 
males ; but be careful to leave no males among the females that are 
placed to lay their eggs, and if by mistake you have thrown a female 
among the males, carefully place it with the others. 

" After that operation is done, and the females commence laying, you 
have nothing more to do with them ; cover the box vrhich contains 
the males, and keep it so until the next morning ; it is what is called 
the reserve. The next morning proceed the same way as I have said 
above; but it happens sometimes that you have more females than 
males, in which case, after you have all your males of the morning 
employed, you take the quantity you need from your reserve, as you 
must remember that every female must be provided for for producing 
good eggs. 



326 THE KEW WEST. 

'' After you have been using the males you want from your reserve, 
tlirow all the balance out, and the birds will soon eat them. Do the 
same thing every day, till all the moths have emerged from the cocoons. 

" One hundred pairs of cocoons, which weigh a pound, will produce 
an ounce of eggs ; and an ounce of eggs is considered to produce forty 
thousand silk-worms. 

" After your females have done laying their eggs they will all die, 
and then you can roll together carefully the papers on which your 
eggs are, and place them in tin boxes. Two sides or more of these 
boxes should be of perforated tin. These boxes, to be preserved, 
should be placed in a cool room or dry cellar, where they will not be 
liable to freeze ; but freezing, though it may injure by retarding the 
period of their hatching, yet does not destroy them. 

" It is preferable, thirty or forty hours after the females have 
been laying, to take them out from their eggs, because after that time 
they lay but a few eggs, and those last eggs are not considered as 
good as the first laid. 

'' As we will now raise eggs for exportation, we must adopt a 
unifoi-m plan for our eggs in California, as they have in other 
countries where they are raising eggs to export, and for that purpose 
I have been examining several paste-boards (cartoons), and have found 
one of a good size, and of a good and light quality ; they are little 
over nine inches and a half wide by one foot and one inch long ; they 
only cost one cent a-piece ; I think they are the best thing we can 
adopt. Those that have them not in their localities can have them 
by sending to me their orders with the money for the quantity they 
desire to receive. 

' ' This year, particularly, the weather has been uncommonly bad for 
the Avorms, on account of the constant cold weather, fogs, and rain, 
we had so late in the spring. I desire to repeat here to our silk- 
growers, and wish to impress it on their minds, that they must not 
feed their Avorms with wet leaves. The food must be gathered — as 
much as possible — when the sun shines upon the trees ; wait until the 
dew is off. Gather late in the afternoon your food for the night and 
for the first feeding of the morning ; give as much as needed of the 
leaves right fresh from the trees. Do not let them get faded^, as they 
are in that state too hard for the worm to eat." 

Mr. W. M. Hayne makes the following recom- 
mendations to the State Agricultural Society : 



SILK-WORMS. 327 

"The quantity of feed that a given number will require, say for 
fifty thousand worms, the first week, will average about fifteen 
pounds per day ; second age, about sixty pounds per day ; third age, 
about one hundred and forty pounds per day ; fourth age, about three 
hundred pounds per day. Now, allowing seven days to each age, 
we have, in round numbers, seven thousand eight hundred and five 
pounds of mulberry-leaves to make fifty thousand cocoons. Twenty 
times this amount will be one hundred and fifty-six thousand one 
hundred pounds, which will make one million cocoons. 

" The Japanese silk-worms, being of a much smaller variety, and 
consequently not making so large cocoons, will not consume more 
than two-thirds this amount of feed. It will be seen that I have 
allowed thirty five days for the worms to commence spinning. This 
is about the usual time when not fed at night during the last two ages 
of their existence ; but if properly treated and fed day and night 
during the last two ages of their lives, they will commence spinning 
in twenty-eight to thirty-two days from the hatching. The worms, 
when about to molt, will seek obscurity from the light, when they 
will firmly attach themselves to the fibres of the leaves, remaining 
perfectly motionless, in a death-like torpid state, for twelve or eighteen 
hours, when they will commence to move their bodies forward, and if 
not disturbed, will, in the course of twelve or eighteen hours more, 
extricate themselves from their old skin or coating, and leave it as 
firmly attached to the first as when fastened there by them at the 
commencement of the process. 

" It will be observed, according to my experience and calculation"^, 
that seventy-eight tons of mulberry-leaves will make one million of 
cocoons, and that three acres of mulberries will yield ninety tons of 
feed. Three acres, then, will give us ample food for one million of 
the large Chinese cocoons. Those cocoons wall weigh about one 
thousand four hundred pounds after being well dried and the chrysalis 
losing all of its animal matter and becoming a light shell within the 
cocoons, in which state we shall not lose over seventy per cent, in 
winding, which will give us four hundred and twenty pounds of raw 
silk. This, at S3ven dollars per pound, will give us two thousand 
nine hundred and forty dollars for two and one half acres of mul- 
berries. Now for the expense : 

COST. Amount. 

Six men for the first age $42 00 

Eight men for the second age 56 CO 

Twelve men for the third age 84 00 



338 THE NEW WEST. ■- 

COST — (Continued). Amount.. 

Twenty men for the fourth age $140 00 

Tliirty men lor the fifth age 210 00 

Winding; at one dollar per pound -^20 00 

Total expense in full, when put in hanks of raw silk ^952 00 

'■ This leaves about two thousand dollars for two and a half acres, or 
eight hundred dollars net per acre. The capital to be invested to secure 
these results will be two and one-half acres of mulberries, say five 
hundred dollars per acre ; a cocoonery and reels, about eight thousand 
dollars, making ten thousand five hundred dollars. But it must be 
remembered that by increasing your plantation to eight acres you 
can make three millions of cocoons in one season without any ad- 
ditional cost of building, by the following process : See that you 
have sufficient eggs for hatching this number. Place them in a tin 
box with perforated sides and ends ; keep the box in a dry, cool place 
through the winter ; at the latter part of the winter put them in an 
ice-house where they will be kept at a temperature of about forty 
degrees. On the first of May take one million, which will be in 
weight twenty-five ounces, and hatch them. By the first of June 
these v/ill be so far out of the way that you may hatch another 
twenty-five ounces, and so for July; and if you have eggs, you may 
hatch the fourth batch for August, which will give the nice sum of 
eight thousand dollars net profit on four millions of cocoons. 

'' After we have chosen a sufficient number of cocoons to furnish 
eggs for the next year's feeding, they are placed thinly upon a shelf, 
and in eight to ten days from the time th'y have finished spinning 
they are transformed into a chrysalis, which immediately emits from 
its mouth an oily substance against one end of the cocoon, and_, 
simultaneously, with its head commences a shoving and pushing 
motion, when in a few hours it will emerge again into the world. 
They are then taken, male and female, and all put into a box, and as 
fast as they pair they are taken out and placed upon a table. In this 
position they are allowed to remain about six hours. They are then 
separated and the males put into a box. The females are placed on 
sheets of white paper, and in three or four hours she will lay her eggs 
to the number of three or four hundred. This process is gone through 
with every day until the millers have laid all their eggs — tliis will 
finish the existence of the silk- worm for the year.'' 



pEoriTS OF siLK-KAisixa. 329 

I append a letter on this important subject : 

Santa Baebaea — State of California, July 15, 18G8. 
Dear Sir, — In the month of April I hatched out three ounces of 
eggs of silk-worms — (French and Japan eggs.) In the middle of 
June I had one hundred thousand cocoons. 

100,000 cocoons— 40 lbs of pure silk $400 00 

Premium of the State of California on 100,000 cocoons 300 00 



Total $700 00 

EXPENSES. 

"Wages to six girls, 15 years old, about $50 00 

"Wages to the Superintendent 50 00 

Winding off of the cocoons 100 00— $200 00 

Balance $500 00 

The price of silk worm eggs is nominal in California. I never 
sold any, I would consider $5.00 per ounce as the best business to go 
in. 

This year (18G8) I, in company with A Packard, hatched out six 
ounces of silk worm eggs; they are doing well, and very soon, if you 
wish, I will give you the result of 18u8 operations. 

Now, sir, you must notice that few places in California can give 
labor-wages as low as Santa Barbara. Our town is inhabited by 
about one hundred families of Californians (Mexicans^; each family 
has from five to twenty children ; said children will not be servants, 
principally the girls, but they will attend to silkworms with pleasure 
(light work and not permament), and that for low wages. 

We have (Mr. A. Packard and myself) ten acres of land planted 
with 2,000 mulberry trees, six years old. Next year we will be able 
to feed the worms on nine ounces of eggs, and perhaps make two 
crops in a year. I don't see any difficulty. California can produce 
all the silk they want, but they must plant trees before they 
speculate on silk-worm eggs, and before putting up machinery for the 
weaving of silk. 

I shall be glad to give you all the information on the silk business, 
and will always remain within the limits of truth. Exaggerations 
have been killing many good enterprises in California. 

Yours very truly, 

T. E. GOUX. 



330 THE NEW WEST. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE CLIMATE OF THE PACIFIC COAST CALIFOENIA AND 

OREGON. 

The causes of tlie peculiar climate of our western 
coast are still not altogether clear. Some important 
facts^ however^ are known, which aid in explaining it ^ 
and no doubt if the careful investigations of the Gov- 
ernment geographical survey in the Sierras, and the 
observations of Government officers on the sea-board 
and at the various military stations, both in regard to 
meteorology and marine currents and temperature be 
continued, we shall have, in a few years, the basis of a 
^^ Science of Climate " for the Pacific coast. 

The data of the science least known and determined 
are the marine currents of the Pacific Ocean, which 
must have so vast an influence in determining the cH- 
mate of its coasts, and the hygrometical condition of 
the atmosphere (or the exact amount of moisture con- 
tained in it) on this border of the contment. Every 
traveler and observer will agree that there is a myste- 
rious something in the climate of Western California, 
for instance, which is singularly bracing and invigorat- 
ing, which cannot exactly be explained by its equabil- 
ity, its temperature, or its dryness. Whether it arises 
from that unkno^vn element called ozonCj which the 
air is said especially to acquire in blowing over wide 
tracts of ocean, or whether it comes from that fortunate 



NORTHERN COAST CLIMATE. 331 

mixture o£ oceanic aad continental climates wliich char- 
acterizes this coast, or from some utterly undiscovered 
cause, future Investigations must decide. In this brief 
account of the climates of the Pacific coast, we will 
confine ourselves to the facts which are known, but are 
not often put together, and to inferences which can 
be safely drawn from them. 

The general impression of intelligent people in the 
Eastern States of the coast of the Northern Pacific, is 
that it is a most disagreeable, cold, gloomy, half-barren 
region, with little capacities for production or future 
development. Nothing can be further from the truth. 

The coasts of our northern possessions on the Pacific^ 
and of British America, and an immense tract lying 
eastward and stretching far to the north, are as capa- 
ble of producing the grains and fruits of a temperate 
climate, and of supporting a large population, as any 
part of Northern Europe. The isothermal lines are 
the best measures of the capacity of a country in sup- 
porting life. 

Beginning as far to the north as Alaska, we find the 
mean annual temperature (32^^) here the same as that 
of the north coast of Lake Superior, of most of Norway 
and of latitude 50^^ in Asia. 

Coming down to Sitka, from which the ice (con- 
sumed in California) is brought, we find the summer of 
Norway (55° mean), and crossing the mountains to the 
interior plain we discover precisely in its latitude a 
district so warm and sunny as to possess the summer 
of France (65° mean). An immense region in this 
part of the continent, reaching as far north as 60° 65' 



3o2 THE NEW WEST. 

nortli latitude or beyond the latitude, of Alaska, is 
adapted, with the exception of the mountains, to wheat 
and bread grains. 

Going still northward of this, even above the lati- 
tude of Alaska, and north of the southernmost point of 
Greenland, we find a region near the McKenzie River 
so mild in climate as to possess the summer of Ire- 
land (60*-^ mean.) This delicious summer tempera- 
ture' extends from this point southward till it strikes 
the coast below Puget's Sound, and continues on to 
near Los Angeles, or at the latitude of Africa, for 
1,500 miles of north and south distance. This won- 
derful range of a cool and mild summer (57° to 60°), 
for such an immense distance over a whole coast, is a 
fact unknown elsewhere in the world. It is as if the 
summer of Ireland extended from Bergen, in Nor- 
way, to the Straits of Gibraltar, or from Hudson's Bay 
to Mexico. It should be remembered that this tem- 
perature is far inland on the north, in British Ameri- 
ca, and is in the neighborhood of the coast in Wash- 
ington Territory, Oregon, and California. 

It thus appears that on the Pacific coast the iso- 
thermals are north and south instead of east and west. 
Still it must be remembered that down the whole coast, 
between the coast ranges and the high mountains of 
the interior, are parallel belts of climate which are 
considerably different from one another. 

If we descend a little south in British America, in 
about the latitude of Hudson's Bay and Scotland, we 
find the summer of France (Gb° mean). This belt of 
sunny climate, though interrupted by the Rocky Moun- 



CLIMATE. 333 

tains, we may follow down inside of the coast ranges, 
and eastward of San Francisco, till we reach Los An- 
geles ; or, as if from Scotland to Africa, one belt of 
delicious summer extended through Europe. 

Again, beginning in the latitude of Puget^s Sound, 
in the eastward of the mountains, in British America, 
we find the summer of southern France and northern 
Italy (70° mean). This is interrupted by the moun- 
tains, and begins again in the latitude of Astoria, ex- 
tending down through Oregon and Central California, 
near the Sierras, to the south of Los Angeles, or the 
latitude of northern Africa — the region, in its central 
portions, of the vine, the fig and the olive. 

On the other hand, Puget's Sound Ixas on its north- 
ern coast the climate of Ireland and England through 
the year, or a mean annual temperature of 50^^. Its 
rain-fall, however, is greater, being fifty-five inches 
annually, against forty-five to fifty inches in those 
countries. 

Central California, up to the 40th parallel, has the 
yearly temperature (60'^ mean) of Spain, Central Italy, 
Asia Minor and Northern Syria, while San Francisco 
is a little cooler, having a mean, annual temperature 
of 55°. 

Southern California, beginning near the 30th paral- 
lel, and including the region above the Gulf up to a 
point in the interior, east of Los Angeles, has the mean 
annual temperature of North Africa and Cairo (70"^). 
If we consider the summer climates of the south, we 
find the summer of Algeria (80^^ mean) prevailing 
through the Californian Peninsula, and extending up 



334 THE NEW WEST. 

the deserts eastward of the Sierras until it reaches a 
point in the Great Basin of Nevada, as far north as 
the latitude of San Francisco. Again, in the central 
part of California, in the Valley of the St. Joaquin, 
we discover a small district with the summer of the 
Great Desert of Sahara (85^), and a monthly mean at 
3 P. M. of lOS*^ ; and we meet with this formidable 
temperature still further south in the Arizona Desert. 
One spot near the Colorado and the Gila enjoys the 
summer of the hottest parts of Africa (90"^ mean), 
and reaches at times a temperature hardly surpassed 
in the world, the thermometer sometimes indicating 
116^ in the shade, and keeping a mean of over 100-' 
for a month. 

Again, if we look at the winter temperature, we 
find that the winter of Ireland, England, Western 
France, and Northern Italy and Asia Minor (40° 
mean) begins at Vancouver's and passes down through 
Oregon westward of the Cascade Mountains, and fol- 
lows the line of the Sierras to a little north of San 
Francisco, while the winter of Charleston (50° mean) 
begins in this city, and passes down inside of the coast 
range to the lower Colorado. 

Before examining further the particular character- 
istics of the Pacific climates, or seeking for their 
causes, it may be well to observe the general correspon- 
dence between the Pacific countries and those of the 
Eastern continents. This coast has no analogy with 
our Atlantic, but only with the European coasts, and 
with them many points of difference. On the north, 
Sitka and the upper portion of the British American 



ANALOGIES OF CLIMATE. 335 

sea-board correspond with Norway ; Puget's Sound, 
Vancouver's Island^ Washington, and Oregon with Ire- 
land and England ; Central California with Spain and 
Syria; and the Peninsula with North Africa. There 
seems no region corresponding with France. The in- 
land regions on the north, in British America, seem in 
climate and productions to bear an analogy to North 
Germany and Sweden. Evidently, if we may trust 
to the observations of temperature and the accounts of 
intelligent travelers, there is a vast, unknown, but 
fertile region, reaching up the coast, and extending on 
the east side of the continuance of the Rocky * Moun- 
tains as far north as the 60th parallel, capable in the 
future of supporting milHons of inhabitants, and of pro- 
ducing all the grasses and bread-grains and trees of 
the temperate zone. 

The most wonderful feature of the Californian coast 
climate, is its equability. The winters' range of tem- 
perature, during four years of observation, was only 
4^. The range in San Francisco, between January 
and July, was only 8*^ 3', while in Washington, for the 
same period, it was five times as great, or 44® 2'. The 
temperature of San Diego ranges less than half a 
degree on the average for each month of the year. 

I will quote here some tables of the range of tem- 
perature, at difi'erent seasons, on the Pacific and At- 
lantic coasts in Europe, as well as of the mean winter 
temperature ; they are taken from Blodgett's excel- 
lent work on the '^ Climatology of the United States, '^ 
from which the facts stated above are mainly taken. 

* Prof. Whitney proposes the name Cordilleras for this chain. 



336 



THE KEW WEST. 



SPRING. 

Advance of Temperature. 



March 
Stations . Mean 

Boston 38.2 

New York 38.3 

San Francisco 52.8 

Fort Miller, Cal 5G.7 

London 42.5 



March 
to April. 

10.2 


April 
to May. 

10.1 


May 
to June 

9.7 


10.4 


10.7 


9.0 


2.5 


0.0 


3.5 


6.3 


6.0 


4.9 


4.4 


6.6 


7.0 



AUTUMN. 

Decline of Temperature, 



August. 
Station. Mean. 


Aug. to 
Sept. 


Sept. to 
Oct. 


Oct. to 
Nov. 


Nov. to 
Dec. 


West Point 71.8 


7.5 


11.3 


10.8 


19.3 


San Francisco. ..57.2 


1.0 


0.3 


8.6 


3.1 


Fort Miller 83.0 


7.0 


8.5 


12.0 


7.4 


Fort Vancouver. 65.0 


4.7 


7.5 


6.8 


10.0 



WINTER TEMPERATURE. 

Mean Stations. 



Mean. 

Lisbon 52.5 

Penzance 44.2 

Bergen 36.3 

this that San Francisco 



Stations 

San Diego 52.3 

Aspinw^all 42.4 

Sitka 26.5 

San Francisco 50.0 

It will be seen from 
only changes 2° 4' from March to April, while the 
range in New York and Boston is five times as much, 
and from April to May ten times as much as in the 
corresponding months on the western coast. In 
autumn the temperature rises in San Francisco in 
September, as compared with August, and only falls 
3* of one degree in October, while it falls 11^ at 
West Point- Again, from October to November, and 
November to December, it falls but 3'^ in each, while 
here the decrease is 10"^. 



VARIETIES OF CLIMATE. 337 

In winter the mean temperature of San Diego and 
Lisbon are the same, of Sitka and Bergen (Norway), 
and nearly of Astoria and Penzance (Cornwall). 

A very remarkable feature is also the variety of 
climates within a breadth of 150 miles in California. 
Thus, one may be enjoying a cool, pleasant June, say 
with a mean of 57^^, in Monterey j he may travel east 
150 miles, and pass through five successive belts of 
climate, representing, in turns, the summers of 
Ireland, France, northern Italy, Spain, and Algeria, 
until at Fort Miller he finds a mean temperature of 
108^, or the heats of interior Africa. Again, he has 
but the journey of a few miles to the snows and frosts 
of the Sierras. Within two hundred miles, he may 
thus try almost every belt of the world's climate. 

In comparing the temperature of Pacific stations 
with European, we find that San Francisco has the 
yearly temperature of Bordeaux and of Constantinople, 
but with far more equability of climate. Its spring 
(57^-* and 54-) is milder than that of any city 
with which it can be compared, except Lisbon or 
Cadiz J its summer (69^ and 57^) is less warm, and 
its winter far more genial than, for instance, that of 
Bordeaux, Madrid, Cadiz, Lisbon, or Constantinople. 

Monterey, again, has the yearly temperature of 
Toulouse, San Diego or Cadiz. Los Angeles, which 
has a spring equal in warmth (74'-) to the summer 
of Madrid, has a summer (07'^) cooler than any cor- 
responding European station, with an autumn (5(]^') 
as moderate as that of southern France* 

Taking the year through, the cHmate of California 
15 



338 



THE KEW WEST. 



is a dry one, the summer, from the middle of May till 
November, being almost entirely withou fc rain, and the 
winter being mainly only a showery season. The 
annual rain-fall is only about 22 inches,* which is 
nearly the same with that of Syria, and about equal 
with Paris and Marseilles, while our coast reaches 42. 
The driest seasons prevail at Fort Yuma (where the 
rain-fall is only 3.15 inches) and on the southern 
coast. Thus, on the Ranche del Chino, near Los 
Angeles, the fall is 9.7 inches; at San Diego, 10.43; 



* Kain-fall in California.— The Stockton Gazette has been collecting the 
statistics of the rain-fall in the State for 1868, which wUl be found below : 

MARE ISLAND. 

Inches. 

Eainnp to January 1 14.34 

Kain during January 9.50 

Rain during February 3.' 8 

Eain during March 5.27 

Eain during April, to 8 0. 8 



Total - 



.32.47 



The greatest fall of rain we had was from 7 A. M., March 2, to 7 A. M. 
March 3 ; during that time, 24 hours, it rained G3 inches. 



STOCKTON. 



We obtained, through the courtesy of Dr. Shurtleff, the report of 
the rain-faU during the present season, up to date, as follows : 



1867. 
Sept. 
Oct 
Nov 



Dec. 



Inches. 



14 ...^ 


63 


6 


62 


5 


73 


6 ^ 


46 


19 


62 


22 


06 


26 


29 


2 


13 


5 


25 


7 


il6 


9 


20 


10 


53 


16 


14 



1867, 
Dec. 



Inches. 
....1.13 

37 

.... 13 
....1.25 

13 

.-.- 42 

48 

53 

27 

21 



Total 9.29 



RAIN-FALL. 



339 



at San Luis Rey, 12.20. It increases steadily up the 
coast, being about 23 at San Francisco,* 47.38 at 
Fort Vancouver, Oregon, or about the same as at Cin- 



18G8. 
Jan. 



Feb. 



1.. 

2.. 

4. 
12.. 
13. 
14. 
18. 
20. 
22. 
23. 
24. 
25. 
26. 
27. 
20. 
20. 
24. 



Inches . 

75 

07 

18 

102 

.23 

14 

40 

40 



1868. 
Feb. 



Mar. 



29. 

1. 

2. 

4. 
" 12. 
" 14. 
" 15. 
" 23. 
April 9. 
" 10. 
" 11. 
" 12. 



Inches. 

38 

37 

43 

16 

54 

08 

75 

.09 

.84 

53 

, 68 

14 

.40 

53 

49 



Total 217 



* FALL OF K.-MN IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

In the season of l849-'0 the rain-fall was 33.10 

185V51 7.18 

1851-52 19 25 

1852-53 33 20 

1853-54 2387 

1854-55 

1855-53 

1850-57 

1857-58 2181 



23 68 
21.66 
19 88 



2222 
22 27 



1858-59 

1859-63 

1860-61 : 1972 

1861-62 49.27 

1862-63 13.62 

1863-64 1^^^ 

1864-65 24 73 

1865-66 22.93 

1866-67 33.84 

1867-68 to March 26th 3627 

It will be seen by the table above, that the wet winter of 1849-50-33 10-lOOths 
inches-was followed by the drought of 1850-1 , when only 7 18-lOOths inches of 
rain feU between July 1 and June 30. Again, the extremely heavy fall of 
rain in the years 1861-2 was followed by the drought of 1862-3, when only 



340 THE NEW WEST. 

cinnati ; 86.35 at Astoria, and 89.94: at Sitka — the 
latter even surpassing Bergen, in Norway (80 inches). 

The spring rains only average two inches in San 
Diego, ten in San Francisco, and fifteen at Astoria. 
All the famous vine countries of Europe have more 
rain through the year than Central California. Thus 
Bordeaux has 34 inches; the Rhine, 36.17 ; Madeira, 
30.87; Manheim, 27. 

The stranger from the eastern coast is particularly 
struck with the dryness and purity of the California 
atmosphere. Animals which are left about dead, and 
garbage, do not infect the air as at home. Decaying 
substance seems to dry up. To this is due in part the 
remarkable salubrity of San Francisco. And yet 
much moisture must be borne in on the prevailing 
westerly sea winds, as is shown by the heavy fog 
which they cause in this city and its neighborhood. 
So dry and healthy are the nights, anywhere away 
from the coast, that one can sleep out in ^^ the 
open " with the greatest comfort, and numbers of the 
laboring men in the rural districts still keep up their 
camping habits by rolling themselves in their blankets, 
and ^'turning in '^ on a hay-stack or under a tree. 

13 62-lOOtLs inches fell, and the stiU greater drought of 1863-4— 108-lOOths inches. 
There has been no drought except when there had been excessive rains in former 
years, but there was one year— 1852-3— when the rain-fall was 33 20-lOOths 
inches, and it was followed by the average weather. The last two seasons 
have both been excessively wet ; in 1866-7 74-lOOths of an inch more rain fell 
than in the wet season of 1849-50, which was followed by the driest single year 
since American occupation. The greatest amount of excess over the average 
rain-fall in any one year was in 1861-2, when the excess was over 27 inches, and 
two years of destructive drought passed over before we saw an average season 
again. The excess of the two last seasons added together is over 24 inches, and 
we must expect a very light rain-fall next season —livening Bulletin. 



CAUSES OF CLIMATE. 341 

In investigating the causes of the peculiar climates 
on the Pacific coast^ as I have said before, the diffi- 
culty is in the want of thorough observations of the 
facts. The great controlling cause is, without doubt, 
the ocean-current, or currents that set in on that 
coast ; but how little is known of these. We only 
know this, that in summer a great body of cool water 
pours in, probably from the Arctic regions, on the 
whole coast of California, Oregon, and British America, 
and that this current is probably somewhat turned off 
from the northern portion of British America by the 
peninsula of Alaska and the adjacent islands. The 
result is that this part of the coast is often warmer than 
the more southern portion in summer. This great body 
of cool water is coldest near the coast, so that on the 
fortieth parallel its temperature is increased from 
46 - 5', near the land, steadily through five degrees of 
longitude westward to 68^', and on the thirtieth from 
62^ to GQ^ during three degrees.* Its average 
temperature near land is 57^, or the same with the 
coast climate. In winter the water near the coast is 
two or three degrees higher than in summer, and as 
much higher than the temperature of the land. 

. As the sun^s rays in the summer months become 
more vertical, the inner plains and deserts of Califor- 
nia and Nevada become heated, and the air rarefied. 
The great body of cool atmosphere on the neighboring 
ocean at once begins to pour into the rarefied spaces, 
and we have that constant sea-gale, which each day 
roars through the opening in the mountains^ called the 

* Maury, as quoted by Blodgett. 



343 THE NEW WEST. 

'^Golden Gate/' and^ pouring over tlie coast ranges, 
cools all interior California. The coast is reduced to 
an average temperature of 57"^ ^y ^^^ ^^id but for it^ 
under a semi-tropical sun, without rain, the inner 
plains would become a desert. This sea-wind is? 
however, stripped of much moisture by the coast 
ranges, so that the interior suffers from want of water, 
and when it reaches the Sierras and passes them, it 
becomes an utterly dry wind over the great Basin of 
the middle of the continent. I have felt this cooHng 
gale in the very midst of the hottest canons of the 
Sierras. 

Again, in the winter, the sun's rays becoming less 
vertical, and the interior being cooled, at the same 
time the ocean water (from some unexplained reason) 
being warmer, the sea gales cease, and the coast is 
warmer in autumn than in summer. The south and 
southeast winds, as well as the west and northwest, 
bringing in milder air than that of the land, are at 
once condensed, and the rainy season ensues. The 
most rainy point for the wind at San Francisco is 
south-southeast, which is the line of the southern 
coast, and must bring in a milder temperature. The 
return of the sun northward again reverses this. The 
upper coasts of the Pacific are struck by the return 
trades in summer, and the weather being milder than on 
the Califomian coast, and their interior portions, 
perhaps, less highly rarefied, their winds are less vio- 
lent and more warm, and thus more constantly con- 
densed, so that they have far more rain throughout 
the year. But why the Oregon coast should have so 



INTERIOR CLIMATES. 343 

much more rain than the Californian, and with such 
frequent southeast winds, is not clear from any facts I 
have been able to collect. 

The coast ranges along the whole coast naturally 
form interior climates quite different from that of 
the sea-board. The further the interior ranges 
are from the influence of the sea air, and the 
nearer to reflected heat from the sides of the Sierras, 
the hotter they become, until, as at Fort Miller, where 
the sun's rays are concentrated by hill-sides and the 
sea-breeze is shut off, we have the heat of the 
tropics ; or, as at Fort Yuma, where the air is mainly 
from interior deserts, and the sea-breeze is utterly 
dried, and the latitude is far south, we find one of 
the hottest regions known in the world. So in interior 
British America and Washington Territory, we have re- 
gions quite northward, shut off from cool sea-winds and 
from dry desert air, placed between mountains where 
the summer sun produces a temperature and flora 
which surprises us. There are probably also fea- 
tures in the configuration of the Northern Continent 
with which we are as yet unacquamted, sheltering 
these remarkable districts from Arctic winds. 

I shall speak in a future chapter of the interesting 
correspondence between Syria and California. If we 
consider that the rain-fall and annual mean of temper- 
ature of both are nearly the same, we shall see 
where the essential resemblance lies. But the Great 
African Desert acts upon the Asiatic country with far 
greater power than does our interior Basin and the 
Arizona desert on California. And the JMediter- 



344 THE NEW WEST. 

ranean is feeble in its importance compared with tliat 
vast body of water which cools and tempers the cli- 
mate of the Pacific coast. 

The climate of California is essentially its own^ and 
has no exact analogue elsewhere in the world. 



CHAPTER XXVL 

CALIFORNIA FOR THE EMIGRANT. 

A GOOD proportion, probably, of the American 
people, are always designing to change their dwelling- 
place. There is a steady and strong current every 
year from our older States to the newer, and again 
from them to the unknown and desolate regions in 
the center of the continent. The young men are 
asking themselves in every quarter of the Union 
whither they can move to better their condition. For 
the last five or eight years the great stream of emi- 
gration in the United States has only carried a few 
eddies to these Pacific States, and California has given 
the rare instance in American annals of a rich and 
fertile region increasing but slowly in population. 

The causes of this retrogression I have spoken of 
elsewhere. They lay in the unfavorable or undevel- 
oped moral agencies here, the uncertainty of the 
tenure of land, the bad name attached to mining, and 
the distance of the country from the world's centers 
of population. But within the last few years a new 
and better era has opened for California. She has 
become an agricultural State — a country of farmers. 
It is her capacities in this direction which have es- 
pecially interested me, believing, as I do, and as every 
student of economy must, that the only perma- 
15 



346 THE NEW WEST. 

nent foundation for prosperity is in a division of tKe 
soil into independent and self-supporting freeholds for 
agriculture, rather than in large grazing ranches, or 
in associated or individual mining properties. 

As I have endeavored to show in these notes, agri- 
culture has made an astonishing development in these 
latter years in California, of v/hich, perhaps, the 
most striking evidence lies in the fact that the wheat 
crop of the State this year will just about equal in 
value the produce of gold and silver. 

Society, too, is becoming settled. The labors of 
self-sacrificing men have borne fruit, and the various 
supports to civilization — schools, and academies, and 
charities, and churches — have sprung up. A new 
generation has nearly come to maturity who know no 
country but California, and do not speak of the east- 
ern coast as "home,'^ and believe this State to be the 
center and perfection of all good. This is giving a 
less shifting and adventurous air to the community. 
With all the defects which will always afflict a so- 
ciety founded on mining and adventure, law is be- 
coming supreme, and civilization is gradually asserting 
her power. The country is becoming far more at- 
tractive to the immigrant. Then the amazing natural 
resources of this coast are beginning to appear, and 
the wonderful richness and bounty of its climate and 
soil. Nothing but the astonishing ignorance which 
prevails in our Eastern States of this great treasure 
which we have in our own territory, could have kept 
a populous agricultural immigration, long ere this, 
from settling and cultivating these favored valleys 



CHEAP FARES. 347 

and hill-sides. The great obstacle to the settlement 
of California is now nearly removed ; for though the 
Pacific .Railroad may not be entirely finished this 
summer, the gap will be easily bridged over by coaches 
or immigrant wagons ; and both the overland line and 
the Pacific mail steamships will then compete in carry- 
ing the immigrants. The latter, it seems to me, will 
have the advantage. With cheap screw-steamers, 
such as now run between New York and Liverpool, 
they could easily convey a thousand immigrants to 
San Francisco from our coast for $40 each, or even 
less — supposing the fare on the Isthmus reduced, as 
it must be by this competition. The President of the 
Pacific Railroad speaks of landing emigrants in San 
Francisco from St. Louis for $35. Whether this be 
done or not, in a few years a powerful current of 
immigration will sweep in to this coast, and it will be 
an important question what sort of people should 
come, and where they should settle. 

In the first place it should be distinctly understood 
by all persons thinking of emigrating, that this is not 
the country for a lazy man or woman. No idle per- 
son thrives here. If a man had money and could 
afford to be idle he would not enjoy it. Every- 
one works hard in California. Its climate is the very 
air of labor — nowhere else in the world do people toil 
so closely. Nor is this the place for that large class 
who lie so heavily on the charitable, and who are so 
constantly seeking employment in our Northern cities. 
What we naay call the half-educated class, petty 
clerks, small shop-keepers, broken-down scholars, 



348 THE NEW WEST. 

accountants, and unsuccessful professional men — they 
can do nothing here ; the city is full of them ; the 
coast of the Pacific is all strewn with these ship- 
wrecked fortunes. And when such people fail here, 
they sink far deeper than at home. The very atmos- 
phere is an atmosphere of pride. No one could con- 
descend to beg here. A man who is utterly defeated 
in the struggle of life in California does not ask for 
a helping hand; he starves,^ or he ends his troubles 
with self-murder. For Heaven's sake let the weak 
and half-educated and unlucky beware of the Pacific 
coast ! 

The labor most in demand now in this State is 
female labor. As I have shown before, the wages of 
" domestics '' are three times higher than in New 
York, waitresses and chambermaids receiving from 
$20 to $25 (in gold) a month, and cooks S30 ; girls 
for al] work get S30, also. They are treated better 
than servants at home, and are almost certain to 
marry above their rank of life. Large numbers of 
them have good properties here. They receive better 
wages than the men. The Avonder is that more of 
our smartest servant-girls do not come, as their pas- 
sage-money would only be from $50 to $7i^, and a 
well-recommended girl might get her fare advanced. 
Female teachers, with good certificates, are also in 
demand, and could earn from $50 to $75 a month. 
Nowhere in the world are women treated so well, or are 
so much needed. In the mining regions four out of 
five of the men are said to be bachelors. 

In male labor, all kinds of skilled workmen are in 



HIGH WAGES. 349 

demand, and receive high wages ; they very gen- 
erally have houses of their own, and money in bank. 
From $50 to $125 dollars a month, in gold, are not 
uncommon wages for teamsters, carpenters, ship- 
builders, caulkers, blacksmiths, and the like ; some, 
however, being paid by the day. Miners receive 
from $3.50 to $5 a day. Farm-laborers, of course, 
are always needed, and can reckon on $30 to $40 a 
month and board ; they soon come to own farms of 
their own. In regard to skilled professional labor, it 
is impossible to give an opinion, the demand depend- 
ing so much on circumstances. An able young law- 
yer or physician ought certainly to make his way in 
San Francisco, but perhaps with no more chances in 
his favor than in New York or Boston. 

The country seems to me best of all adapted for 
men with small capitals who are farmers or vine- 
growers. For such it offers immense inducements. 
The work of clearing a farm here is as nothing com- 
pared v/ith that needed in the Northwest, for instance. 
For six months in the year the new settler can 
^^ camp," not needing a house in this delicious cli- 
mate ; he has no barns to build at first j there is no 
forest to clear, or stones to remove j he has only to 
girdle the few trees he may wish to destroy, fence in 
his land, and at once begin his plowing. His hay or 
feed is ready at hand, on all the hills, so that feeding 
his stock costs him little trouble or expense. His 
first crop of wheat may be anywhere from forty to 
sixty bushels to the acre. His land, which he 
may have bought anywhere from $5 to $25 an acre, 



300 THE NEW WEST. 

according to its nearness to market^ at once begins a 
steady rise in valiiCj and soon sells for from $50 to 
$100, so constant is the demand for wheat and barley. 
There is no better investment in the State than good 
wheat-lands under cultivation. Ail the luxuries of 
the farmer the new settler can have speedily. In 
three or four years he can enjoy a variety of fruits 
from his own orchards, and vegetables from his gar- 
den, such as are seen nowhere else in the world. He 
can get good stock cheap, and raise them easily. He 
may try sheep-raising on his barren hills — a most 
profitable branch in California ; or^ if near a city, he 
may have a dairy ranch, or breed fowls for mar- 
ket, or he may attempt unusual crops, such as 
hops, which are far superior to the eastern, or flax, 
which grows luxuriantly, or the castor-bean for a 
lubricating oil, or olives for olive-oil, or almonds, 
which sell everywhere, or figs for market, or grapes 
for raisins ; or he may put his wife and children at 
silk-worm growing — yet destined to be the great pur- 
suit of California. In the ordinary fruit, such as 
peaches, pear^i, apricots, and apples, he will find the 
market overstocked. His great stand-by will be 
wheat and wool. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

WHERE TO SETTLE IN CALIFORNIA. 

As I have often said, no agricultural pursuit in 
this State is nearly so profitable as vine-growing. 
The vintager can buy his land for from $d to $75 an 
acre, according to its nearness to market. He must 
have a little capital, so as to be able to wait five or 
six years, though he can at the same time be sup- 
porting himself by some other branch, as wheat- 
raising or stock-breeding. After six years he can 
reckon on from $60 to $100 an acre for his grapes; 
or, for his wine, from $25 up to $600 per acre, ac- 
cording to its quality and his own skill. 

But both in farming and vine-culture the stranger 
must bear in mind that he has everything to learn. 
There is no climate in Europe or the Eastern States, 
and few soils, that resemble those of California. The 
conditions are essentially different, and what would 
suit our circumstances might be entirely unadapted to 
these. No one must enter on any branch of agri- 
culture or gardening here and fancy he knows it 
beforehand, however experienced he may be at home. 
He must be Avilling to wait and learn ; and, indeed, the 
wisest way would be for every farmer or vine-grower 
to spend a year in some person's employ before he 
started for himself. He would really save money and 
time in this way. Hundreds of thousands of dollars 



352 THE JN^EW AVEST. 

have "been wasted in California b j inexperienced per- 
sons experimenting in these branches, 

A stranger J desiring to settle in this State, should 
avoid the river bottoms, such as the lower plains of 
the Sacramento and San Joaquin, as those are the 
only parts of the country subject to the fever and 
ague; though the land is comparatively cheap, and 
if a system of irrigation be ever introduced, will 
become valuable wheat land. If he fear great heat, 
he must avoid the Foot Hills and the valleys of the 
Sierras, though it is on these hills that the best 
vine-lands are found, and here the greatest ^^I'ofit 
in wine-making will be made. Good vine-land can 
be bought in such places for a mere trifle. But for 
many years it will be very difficult to build up 
pleasant homes in these localities. The climate is 
very hot in summer ; the roads are deep with dust 
or heavy Avith mud. There are few good schools 
or churches. Society is very limited, and the aspect 
of the landscape to a Northerner is very bare and arid. 

When railroads intersect the whole State, these 
Foot Hills will become desirable homesteads. At 
present their distance from market is a serious ob- 
jection, as it costs no more to convey a barrel of flour 
from San Francisco to New York than from some of 
these hifls to the seaboard. The wheat-grower must 
not look south of Monterey, as the rust below that 
point spoils the harvest. Perhajis, for both farmer 
and vine-grower, the most desirable parts of the State 
now are the valleys of the coast range north of the 
Bay of San Francisco, such as Sonoma, Napa, Peta- 



NOETIIEKN VALLEYS. 3j3 

luma, and even as far north as Eussian river. In 
these lovely valleys a delicious climate prevails. The 
sun is warm, but in the afternoon the sea-breeze 
from the Golden Gate tempers the air, and the nights 
are always cool. 

The coolest of the valleys is Sonoma, and per- 
haps the best adapted for vine-growing, though 
vines grow in them all. Here is a pleasant coun- 
try-society, too, of vintagers, and an access to 
the city in a few hours by coach and steamboat. 
Vine-land can be bought here quite cheaply, and 
market is near at hand. Wheat, however, does not 
do so well in Sonoma as elsewhere. The other valleys 
are being opened by railways, and contain the best 
wheat lands and excellent vineyards. There are 
very rich wheat lands in the Russian River Valley, 
and beyond it, which now can be bought for from S5 
to $2b an acre, and which in a year or two will be 
very accessible. The climate is healthy here, though 
warm in summer ; the scenery is attractive, or- 
chards flourish, and with the sea on one side, and 
a railroad connecting Avith the Bay at Petaluma or 
Vallejo, they will be near the outside world. The 
country towns have good schools, and they are all 
near the city. Beyond this, there are said to be good 
and very cheap farm-lands in the Humboldt region — 
a part of the country I have not explored. There is 
a large breadth of land about the head-waters of the 
San Joaquin still open for settlement, to be bought for 
$1.25 or $2.00 an acre. A tract of land of 200,000 
acres^ wheat land, in Merced county, can be 



354 THE NEW WEST. 

bought at Government prices, and wheat farms at $5 
per acre, with credit for a part of the purchase-money. 

The most attractive parts of the whole State for a 
farmer or vine-grower, Avith capital, is the neighbor- 
hood of the Bay. Here in Contra Costa, Alameda, 
and Santa Clara counties, are the richest wheat lands 
in the world, the most luxuriant orchards of every 
variety of fruit — the quince and the olive growing 
side by side — and some good vine-lands. The cli- 
mate is perfect; mild in winter, and not too hot in 
summer ; market is close by ; schools and churches 
are near; railways and steamboats connect with the 
outside world. Here, if anywhere in America, could 
be built beautiful country homes, surrounded by fields 
rich with profitable harvest. But land is high, from 
$50 to $100 an acre, though a crop of from forty to 
seventy bushels of wheat could be reasonably ex- 
pected, which would be a handsome return on the 
cost, both of land and cultivation. 

The farmers in these counties are rich. Vine- 
growing here is still an experiment, and no good wine 
has been made in the whole region. Grapes, how- 
ever, must pay well. Orchards have been overdone, 
and scarcely repay, except as a luxury. 

Of the south of California — the sunny and fertile 
region about Los Angeles and Santa Barbara — I have 
spoken before. In a material point of view this is 
undoubtedly the most desirable part of the State for 
an immigrant ; that is, land in proportion to its price 
will yield more to the cultivator. He can grow here 
oranges, lemons, almonds, figs, olives, and the rarest 
vines. The vineyards bear most beautifully. The 



SOUTHEllN CALIFORNIA. 355 

drawbacks are the want of water, which, however, 
in certain localities, can be obtained by a little outlay, 
the want of good harbors, and, above all, the low 
educational and moral status of the population. The 
climate, too, though not oppressive, is enervating. 
A combined immigration of Yankees could easily over- 
come many of the moral disadvantages which result 
from the ^^ Southern ^^ and Spanish influences, and, I 
fully believe, could make those counties one of the 
gardens of the world. There is an opening to immi- 
gration now, from the fact of several of the large 
estates being in process of breaking up. Sheep- 
raising could be carried on here with great profit. 
But the great wealth of this region must always lie in 
its fruit, and whatever of these can be condensed or 
preserved for market will always pay. The problem 
of a first-class wine they have not yet solved. 

The other portions of the south, such as San Ber- 
nadino,Tulare, and Fresno counties, though containing 
some beautiful fertile valleys and much undeveloped 
Avealth, are in general too desolate and barren and too 
remote from market, to attract the immigrant farmer. 

The true policy for a new settler coming here 
would be to purchase soon after the Pacific Road is 
finished, as the labor and capital which will pour in 
with this will raise most of the valuable grain-lands 
of the State to a high point. Whether, on the whole, 
a family can live here as cheaply as in the Western 
and Atlantic States, is a difficult question.* Flour is 

* I copy portions of a bill at a first-class retail grocery. Best table butter, 
45 cents ; corn-meal, 4 cents per pound ; buckwheat, 9 cents ; roast coffee, 
40 cents; 8^ pounds common suga, $1.00; 1 dozen eggs, 40 cents; 50 pounds 



356 THE NEW WEST. 

at about half the price of the New York market ; 
meats are a little cheaper, and would be far cheaper 
but for the scarcity of cattle since the destruction by 
the drouth. In general, hereafter, meat will be much 
lower. Clothing is about the same ; but the high 
price of labor and the extravagant habits of the 
people (a bequest of the mining era) raise all small 
expenses. The measure of the economy of a popu- 
lation is the subdivision of money. In Germany we 
have change to one-tenth of a cent ; here the lowest 
change is the dime. And in this, as with our un- 
certain standard of value in the East, the small shop- 
keepers get the advantage of the consumers. 

I was assured, on good authority, that the over- 
change taken in this way by Wells & Fargo for 
their postal envelopes range between $25 and $100 
a day. 

It has seemed to me that, on the whole, every 
householder's expenses were about thirty-three per 
cent, greater here than at home, with less comfort for 
the money — that is, the paper dollar in the East is 
about equal to the gold one in California. 

The following are the views of an intelligent observ- 
er as to the advantages of the ^^ Foot Hills": 

"Freights from the lower coast range from $9 to $15 per ton. 
Farm produce cannot be sent from the counties below San Luis 
Obispo to this market as matters now are, at an average of less than 
|10 per ton, or half a cent per pound, for wheat, barley, and oats. 
A farm in San Diego county may seem very cheap at $10 per acre, 
but may, in fact, be very dear, if wanted for grain crops, at the pre - 

flour, $1.60 ; 7 pounds crushed sugar, $1.00 ; 3^ pounds farina, 50 cents ; 1 quart 
cranberries, 25 cents; 1 pound chocolate, 49 cents; flour by the barrel, 
about §7.00. 



ADVANTAGES OF TOOT HILLS. 357 

ent prices of transportation. At present, very little produce besides 
butter and cheese can be sent to San Francisco at a profit from coun- 
ties below Monterey. Persons who buy for a prospective value, 
expect to wait some years until cheap transportation or home markets 
have brought up the value of lands. But the greater number of those 
seeking homes cannot afford to wait for years. They want a mar- 
ket as soon as possible, where any surplus produce can be disposed 
of at a profit. The proximity or remoteness of a market, with high 
or low rates of transportation, makes the difference between a pros- 
perous farmer and one who can hardly make both ends meet. 

'^ Lands in the Foot Hills are relatively near to market. So long 
as there is a population in the mountains, there must be a market for 
all the crops which can be raised in the Foot Hills. We have seen hay 
sold at $()0 per ton which had been drawn a moderate distance into 
the mountains, when the same hay would have been a drug in the 
valleys at §10 to $20 per ton. The heat, which is so often a bug- 
bear, not only ripens crops, but brings all sorts of fruits to perfection. 
There is also a greater rain-fall upon the Foot Hills than in the interior 
valleys. It is harder work to cultivate a hill-farm ; but there are 
advantages which more than balance this one drawback. Nearly all 
these lands have an abundance of wood, without which no farm is 
ever complete. Besides, they are generally well watered, either by 
springs or running brooks, and the lands being natural water-sheds, 
the crops can never be drowned out by the winter floods. During 
the present year there is a considerable breadth of valley land which 
does not produce much more than half a crop because of the winter 
floods ; while hill lands invariably mature large crops. The large 
wheat farms are all very well ; but most settlers have not the capital 
to buy and stock them. They want the best thing for present pur- 
poses ; and in this view we doubt if there are any lands Avhich can be 
made available for so many uses as the cheap lands in the Foot Hills of 
the coast range, and more particularly of the Sierra. They are 
picturesque, have greater natural resources, more moisture, and be- 
sides being adapted to grain and hay, are always good fruit and dairy 
lands." 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE AMERICAN PALESTINE^ OR CORRESPONDENCES 
BETWEEN THE PACIFIC COAST AND SYRIA. 

I HAVE often been struck, in traveling through 
California and Nevada, with the old Bible descriptions 
of nature and scenery, as applicable here 5 and have 
found a kind of constant exegesis or commentary in my 
journey, on the vivid imagery of the Hebrew prophets 
and poets. The country seems a kind of American 
Palestine. It may interest my readers to notice a few 
of these correspondences. 

The language of the Jewish law in describing the 
favored land of Judea, into which the children of 
Israel had been led, pictured it (Deut. viii. 8-9) as 
^^ a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig-trees 
and pomegranates ; a land of olive-oil and honey ; a 
land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness j 
thou shalt not lack anything in it ; a land whose 
stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest 
dig brass (copper).^^ 

This catalogue of productions corresponds exactly to 
that of Californian agricultural wealth, and copper will 
be yet one of the great exports of the Pacific coast. 

One of the earliest pictures of Jewish pastoral life 
represents Abraham's servant, after his meeting with 
Rebecca, feeding his camels ^'with straw and prov- 
ender (or barley^'). (Gen. xxiv. 32). The modern 



THE AMERICAN PALESTINE, 359 

traveler still feeds his horses in Palestine on straw and 
barley; and in California that is his only "feed" 
wherever he journeys, for there is no hay, and wild 
oats cover the valley and hills of the San Joaquin as 
they do Bashan and Carmel. 

As he travels on toward the Foot Hills, he often vfatches 
the numerous hawks' nests on the top of dead trees, 
precisely as he sees them on the high Lebanon ; and the 
self-acting water-wheels which supply water to Yankee 
houses and farms in Calaveras, will remind him of those 
Avhich supply the dwellings on the plains of Orontes ; 
and in the artificial ponds and reservoirs for watering the 
vineyards in Tuolumne, he will recall the description 
of ^^the pools of water to water therewith the wood 
that bringeth forth trees ^' (Ecc. ii. 4) in Solomon's 
vineyards. Here, too, he will see the mulberry, even 
as in Palestine, and the cactus growing wild, and 
grounds surrounded with huge hedges of cactus, as in 
Syria. The plains covered with wild mustard will 
recall the valley of Jordan, and in both he will hear 
of traditions of the mustard becoming almost a tree, 
for " the fowls of the air to lodge under the shadow of 
it." In both countries the cabbage is perennial and 
becomes a shrub or tree — one being credibly reported 
in the south of California as some twenty feet high. 

When Job described the ^^ brooks which are black- 
ish by reason of the ice, and what time they wax 
warm, they vanish ; when it is hot, they are consumed 
out of their place ; they go to nothing and perish ; 
the troops of Tema looked for them, they were con- 
founded because they had hoped j they came thither, 



360 THE I^EW WEST. 

and were ashamed " (Job xv. 15-19); he pictured 
the experience of the modern traveler in the Sierras, 
who crosses with difficulty a swollen torrent in the 
spring, and returns in the summer^ after a hot day's 
ride, thirsty for water, and is ^^ confounded, '^ be- 
cause the stream ^^is consumed out of its place." 
The Californian experiences of a mountain on fire, and 
of accidental fires consuming large grain-fields, seem 
to have been also familiar to the Jews, for one of 
David's similes is : "As fire burneth the wood, and ?s 
the flame setteththe mountain on fire" (Ps. Ixxxiii) ; and 
one of the provisions of the law was that ^'if fire 
breakcth out and catch in thorns, so that the stacks 
of corn, or the standing corn, or the field be consumed, 
he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution " 
(Ex. xxii. G.) AVhen David speaks of ^^ water- 
spouts," he alludes to a phenomenon which sometimes 
appears in the midst of the Sierra Nevada, for I have 
heard authentic instances of travelers and their 
vehicles swept away from a road into a mountain 
ravine by these sudden outbursts of water, as they 
are sometimes at this day in the Lebanon. 

The mining towns of Nevada, nestled among the 
bare and mighty hills, will recall how the bare moun- 
tains of Judea were ''round about Jerusalem," and 
the comfort in ''the shadow of a great rock" as one 
descends the treeless slopes to Carson river, will re- 
mind one of that beautiful image of the Hebrew poet. 

The " cattle on a thousand hills " is as true of Cali- 
fornia as once of Palestine, and the shepherds leading 
the flock and carrying the young in their arms may 



CORRESPONDENCES. 361 

be seen now on the hills of Los Angeles, as once on 
those of Judea. 

The many warnings in the Bible against slipping 
and falling, and the imagery taken from the narrow 
pathways which traversed the ravines of Palestine — 
such as ^^ their feet set in slippery places," ^4hey 
shall slide in due time/' ^^ways like slippery places 
in the darkness " — might be drawn now from the ex- 
periences in the canons of the Pacific mountains, 
where a single misstep of your horse will at any mo- 
ment plunge you down a frightful abyss. 

The tremendous land slides of the Yosemite and 
other canons must have had their analogy in the 
Lebanon or other Syrian ranges, for one of Job's 
grand figures is of ^^ the mountain falling cometh to 
nought, and the rock is moved out of its place." — 
Job X., iv., 18. 

The vivid description of the miner's work, in the 
28th chapter of Job, though badly translated, gives 
in the original a remarkably similar picture to the 
scenes which meet the stranger's eye in the quartz 
and silver mines of the Foot Hills and the Sierras. 
(I will adopt my own rendering) : 

'' Surely there is a vein for silver and a place for 
gold where they strain it. Iron is taken out of the 
earth and brass is molten out of the ore. He (the 
miner) setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out 
all secret things;" * * * and (v. 4) he ^^breaketh 
a shaft from where men dwell ; they (the miners) are 
unsupported by the feet ; they hang down far from 
the [dwellmgs of] men ; they swing to and fro ;" and 



862 THE NEW WEST. 

again (v. 9)^ '^ He putteth forth his hand upon the 
hard flinty he overturneth the mountains by the roots ; 
(v. 10), he sinketh shafts among the rocks; (v. 11), 
he bindeth the floods from overflowing ^^ (i. e. he stops 
the waters in the mine). 

There are certainly most of the mining processes 
familiar to the Californians represented in the oldest 
Hebrew poetry. 

The great importance of wells and places where 
water is found on a journey, which appears so much 
in early Jewish history, recalls one^s observations 
in the saliferous deserts of Nevada, and the barren 
wastes of Eastern California, where the stations are 
wells, and aU bargains or treaties must be made near 
some fresh-water spring. 

The terrible experience of California in the drouth 
had a correspondence in that of the inhabitants of 
Palestine. Five years ago, throughout the interior of 
the State, for some months the ^' Heaven v/as as brass, 
and the earth as iron ; ^^ and the Vv- hole farming popu- 
lation could have repeated the fearful lamentation of 
Joel, "Tell ye your children of it, and let your child- 
ren tell their children, and their childi'en another gen- 
eration, that which the palmer-worm hath left hath the 
locust eaten, and that which the locust hath left hath 
the canker-worm eaten, and that which the canker- 
worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. * * * Howl, 
all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for 
it is cut off from your mouth. * * * He hath laid my 
wine waste and barked my fig-tree. * * * The field 
is wasted, the land moumeth, for the com is wasted, 



DROUTH. 363 

the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye 
ashamed, oh ye husbandmen: howl, oh ye vine- 
dressers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the 
harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up 
and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, 
the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the 
trees of the field are withered. * * * The seed is rot- 
ten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, 
the barns are broken down, for the corn is withered. 
How do the beasts groan. The herds of cattle are 
perplexed because they have no pasture; yea, the 
flocks of sheep are made desolate. * * * The beasts 
of the field cry out also unto thee; for the rivers of 
waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the 
pastures of the wilderness." Every one of these 
dreadful experiences were felt in the interior of Cali- 
fornia in that terrible year (1863) of the drouth. The 
vines, the figs, the pomegranates and apples (in what 
other country could these hvo fruits be mentioned as 
growing together ?) withered and perished. The bar- 
ley and wheat harvest in many districts was de- 
stroyed. 

The cattle died by the tens of thousands from thirst 
and the want of pasture, and what vegetation the 
drouth spared, fire consumed, and armies of insects 
devoured. The State has never recovered its wealth 
of cattle destroyed in that one summer. 

The allusion in Joel to the seed rotting in a dry 
season after the harvest, is true both of Syria and 
California, and of few other countries, for the planting- 
time in both is in the autumn, and if the winter rain 



364 THE NEW WEST. 

be too long delayed, the seed rots in the ground. This 
resemblance brings us to the most prominent corre- 
spondence between the two countries — and that is the 
similarity of seasons. When a New-Englander reads 
in the Bible of ^^ the early and latter rain/^ it makes but 
a vague impression on his mind, but a Californian, 
whose summer is a dry season, knows how vitally im- 
portant to the crops are the autumn and spring rains. 
And when the Jewish prophet promises as a blessing 
to the favored people ^^ The treader of grapes shall 
overtake him that soweth seed " (Amos ix.), and the 
law holds forth that ^'If ye walk in my statutes the 
vintage shall reach unto the sowing time'' (Lev. xxvi.), 
and " Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage ]'' 
and " The plowman shall overtake the reaper ; " the 
words may be unintelligible at first to a resident of 
our eastern coast, but to the inhabitant of the Pacific 
slope, they describe precisely his most fortunate sea- 
sons. 

When the wheat harvest is so full as to crowd on 
the vintage, and the grape crop so rich that the press- 
ing reaches into the autumn plowing and sowing, then 
is the year a bountiful one to the farmer of the Pacific 
coast. 

The old proverbs, too, have a new meaning here : 
^'He will not plow by reason of the cold," is the plow- 
ing just before winter ; and " A sweeping rain that 
leaveth no food," is the too early autumn rain which 
injures the wheat-stacks left in the air, and utterly 
destroys the pastures. For both in Carmel and Cali- 
fornia, the hills are covered with a kind of " growing 



WINE-PRESSERS. 365 

hay," a dried grass or clover, which retains its nutri- 
tive properties, and is excellent pasture, but which 
the first rains utterly ruin. 

In California, as in Palestine, the west or southwest 
wind brings rain, and cold or clear weather comes out 
of the north, while the east wind is dry a one. 

Syria has lost its ancient wealth of fruit and trees, 
and California is rapidly approaching the moderate 
standard of other countries ; but there are still vines in 
the old Spanish missions Avhose bunches would almost 
rival those famous grapes of Eschol. And upon many 
vineyards, one may still behold the wine-pressers, 
^^ With dyed garments, and garments red like him that 
treadeth in the wine- vat," even as the Jewish vinta- 
gers of old. 

The almond-trees in the gardens of Alameda, with 
their snowy -white heads, will explain that description 
of old age by Solomon, ^^When the almond-tree shall 
flourish," and the olives of Los Angeles will recall a 
hundred vivid similes and pictures in the Hebrew poets. 
One finds ^^The good olive grafted on the wild olive," 
and as you pass an old olive-tree with young shoots 
growing symmetrically around it from its roots, you 
understand the simile, ^'Thy children shall be like 
olive-plants roimd about thy table." 

" Though the labor of the olive should fail" (Haba. 
iii.), has a new meaning, for no tree requires so little 
labor ; and when you see the ground covered with its 
immature flowers, you appreciate Job's comparison : 
'^ He shall cast off his flower like the olive " (Job xv. 
33). And in autumn, after the shaking, when one or 



366 THE NEW WEST. 

two olives remain standing out against the gray sky, 
the traveler will think of the words, ^^ Yet gleaning 
grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive- 
tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost 
bough,'^ &c. (Is. xvii. 6). 

In California one hears of ^^ The first and second 
crop of figs," spoken of in the New Testament ; and as 
one rests in a mountain c ail on, under the gloomy 
shadow of the weird evergreen oak, with wild fan- 
tastic branches and dense foliage, one can understand 
why the corresponding evergreen oak of Palestine and 
Syria was so often chooen as a place of wild pagan 
rites, and was so frequently alluded to in the denimci- 
ations of the prophets. 

There are Dead Seas and Salt Lakes in both coun- 
tries ; saliferous vegetations ; and the hot springs of 
Tiberias, with their deposits of sulphur and salt, and 
the geysers north of Damascus, correspond to the 
geysers in the Sierras. Great deposits of asphaltum 
or bitumen are found in both, and not much petrole- 
um. Earthquakes are still felt in each, and the mir- 
age astonishes the traveler near the Salt Lake as it 
does near the Dead Sea, and in both a sirocco is ex- 
perienced. Wild flowers, without scent, cover the 
fields of both Syria and California with the gayest gar- 
ments ; the acacia, the walnut, and the mistletoe, are 
characteristic of each ; the edible cactus is in both, 
and (I think) the wild pear. 

A last unfortunate correspondence is that each has 
every variety of the best grapes and no good wine. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

EFFECTS OF CLIMATE ON RACE IN CALIFORNIA. 

Twenty-one years is the whole duration of San 
Francisco, and of what may be called Anglo- Ameri- 
can California. This is much too small a period of 
time to permit any material race-changes to be seen. 
Yet, if ever a change of circumstances, a different 
climate, changed diet, and new relations to the world, 
could form a new human variety, then certainly a fresh 
race would spring -up on the Pacific coast. 

The mixture of blood which, with an insular climate, 
has formed from Northmen, Danes, Anglians, and Sax- 
ons, a human variety so different from each of its elements 
— the English-speaking race — is not half so great, nor 
the change of circumstances half so radical, as that 
which has taken place here, and which will inevitably, 
in the long course of ages, form a fresh Race in the hu- 
man family on the western shores of this continent. 

I have spoken of the singular correspondence be- 
tween California and Kevada and Syria. 

I have often wondered whether the Asiatic climate 
of California Avould hereafter produce any minds on 
whom nature would stamp itself, as it did on the Avon- 
derful Hebrew poets, or who could be thus inspired by 
devotion and worship. 

But alas ! blood is stronger than isothermal lines, or 



368 THE NEW WEST. 

the influences of ocean currents and prevailing winds. 
The Anglo-Saxon mind can never be a seer into the 
invisible world of devotion, and it is doubtful if the 
American mind will ever listen patiently enough to the 
voices of nature to be able to interpret them for men of 
all countries and times. Moreover, it must be admit- 
ted that mining occupations are not a very good foun- 
dation for poetry and devotion. 

Still, even in these twenty years, climate and new 
circumstances have begun to produce their minute but 
certain effects. I have examined, as a student of races, 
very carefully the prevailing physical types on this 
coast, and I think I am not mistaken in noting a change 
which has already begun. 

No one who has watched closely the physical type 
which is gradually being formed in the older States, 
from mixture of races and the influence of climate, can 
doubt that the physical beauty of the English-speaking 
race in America is improving. One can travel in no 
public conveyance now in the Eastern States without 
being struck with the delicacy and regularity of profile, 
and the personal beauty of some of the passengers, 
whether men or women.* 

Our race is becoming acclimated, and is living more 
sensibly, and with the blending of so many related 
races, is elevating its physical type. 

The same result, from more manifest causes, is tak- 
ing place in California. Here, picked men in the 
flush of life from most European races have gathered. 

* Since this was written, an intelligent English traveler, llcy. Mr. Zincke, makes a 
similar observation. 



rOEMING A NEW EACE. 369 

They have mainly occupied themselves with vigorous 
pursuits, such as mining, or with out-door occupations, 
such as teaming and farming. They have had the best 
food, plenty of both fruit and meat, and (on the coast) 
the best climate which the Anglo-Saxon has ever en- 
joyed; equable, sunny, cool, and invigorating. In the 
interior they have had a dry, mountain, Asiatic clim- 
ate, with great extremes to struggle with, but which 
has not yet produced its natural effect on the physique, 
as the people so constantly emigrate to the coast. 

The effect of all these combined causes on the phys- 
ical type of California is, that it is especially the land 
of handsome men. One sees great numbers of fine 
manly profiles, Avith full, ruddy cheeks, and tall, vig- 
orous forms. The spare, dry, nervous type of the east- 
em American is not common in the interior. City 
residents, of course, are always inferior physically to 
the rural population ; but even the San Franciscans 
begin to have an English look. I am constantly meet- 
ing yoimg, ruddy, round-faced business men, whom I 
mistake for Englishmen, but who are Yankee-born. 
Still, the curse of this city, overtvorJcj is telling on the 
physique of the people. The climate tempts to do too 
much, and, though there is little sickness, life snaps 
off suddenly. The principal diseases of the city seem 
to be rheumatic, and those which affect the throat. 

In the Sierras, especially at Virginia City, there 
seems no doubt that the rarefied atmosphere has ex- 
panded the chests of the people, even in these few 
years. The impression prevails generally in Califor- 
nia that the climate favors the prolific power of both 
16* 



370 THE NEW WEST. 

animals and human beings ; botli certainly mature 
earlier tlian in the Eastern States. Physicians, how-. 
ever, are inclined to trace the remarkable effect on 
women, observed here, as much to change of climate 
as to any peculiar power in it. I have heard of some 
very large families here — one of twenty-eight children, 
all of one mother. But it should be remembered that 
the great checks on increase of population are always 
artificial, or economical, rather than want of physical 
power : and here luxury does not make children a 
weariness, or poverty a burden. 

The children in the country, and from the wealthier 
classes of the city, seem more ruddy, healthy -looking, 
and prettier than ours in the east. Among the work- 
ing people of San Francisco they are as pale, peaked, 
and nervous, with brains as much overworked, as in 
our cities. It is said that babes do not suffer from 
teething, as do ours, and mothers do not dread ^' the 
second summer," as at home. 

The young girls of the city show a great deal of 
beauty, and such rich bloom of complexion as we sel- 
dom see in the Atlantic border. 

The coast physique will, no doubt, be merely the 
American type improved. The inhabitant of the Sier- 
ras and the central river bottoms will ultimately be- 
come more Asiatic or Arab-like in type — darker, 
sparer, and, on the whole, with less muscular vigor — for 
the common diet of the plains will more and more be 
the delicious fruits and vegetables of that region ; and 
a fruit or vegetable-eating race is never so vigorous or 
energetic as a meat-eating. 



CLIMATE NOT ALL-POWERFUL. 371 

The south of California will tend toward an Italian 
or Moorish type, under the enervating influence of 
climate and a bountiful fruit-diet. A ^^ southern '^ as- 
pect is already rery perceptible even in the pure An- 
glo-Saxons of Los Angeles and its neighborhood. 

Still, in all these theoretical remarks, I desire to enter 
a most distinct caveat against a thesis which is now 
being maintained by a distinguished American scien^ 
tific authority — that climate is all-powerful in deter- 
mining the mental and moral tendencies of a people. 
Climate is only one element in forming a race ; many 
other circumstances enter, among them, first of all, 
yiood or race — that is, inherited tendencies, strength- 
ened by the influence of a long line of ancestors. All 
the facts of the science of ethnology are against the 
theory of climate as the determining cause. 

Even color cannot be explained by climate alone. 
Isothermals are strong, but they can never produce 
"the love-songs of Persia in the dells of Sonora," or 
the poetry of the Hebrews in the canons of the Sier- 
ras, or "the civilization of Peru'^ on the American 
shores of the Pacific, any more than they have made 
Europe and Asia alike, or even Asia like itself, in the 
same temperature and imder the same rain-faU. The 
power of the principle of Inheritance, though modified 
in the course of ages as to the qualities it transmits by 
Natural Selection, is far stronger than most influences 
of climate. 

In observations so purely speculative as these, look- 
ing to far centuries in the future, I may bo permitted 
to note what will be the inevitable political effect of 



372 THE XEW WEST. 

the imperceptible but powerful agencies whicli are now 
slowly building up a new race on the Pacific. Five 
hundred or a thousand years from now, when we have 
an Anglo-American Chinese-like empire of hundreds 
of millions, east of the Eocky Mountains — the leading 
community of the world — there will be another mag- 
nificent republic, or series of republics, on the Pacific 
coast, beginning their independent existence of centu- 
ries. Whether, in that distant period, the Imperial 
Union would consent or not to a voluntary separation 
of its superb Pacific provinces, we cannot predict, but 
we can assuredly prophesy that whenever a great pop- 
ulation on this coast desire to be independent, they 
vrill certainly become so. A world in arms could not 
subdue such a remote region as this, or reannex it by 
force to the United States. Of course, for generations 
to come there will be an enthusiastic loyalty on this 
coast to the Union. But the influences of climate and 
circumstances are too strong. This is now a separate 
world from ours. Its climate, its fauna and flora, its 
productions, its mode of agriculture, its arts, its rela^ 
tions to other countries, its interests, its questions of 
finance, government, law, and morality, are all difi'er- 
ent from our o-v\ti. Everything here is peculiar and 
original, even now. Mighty barriers of desert and 
mountain separate this region now, and always will, 
from the civihzed world. Two or three railroads over 
this vast wilderness vnR be mere threads of connection 
with Europe and America. 

And if there be such contrasts and difi'erences now 
in twenty years between the people and region east 



A NEW EACE. 373 

and west of the Rocky Mountains, what will there be 
in a hundred or five hundred years ? It is true that 
the ideas, the manners, the government, the religion 
implanted here are American — yes, Puritan. These 
they will always be, but there can be no doubt that in 
a remote future they will be embodied in a new race 
of the English-speaking family, and under a separate 
and independent popular government. 
This will be the '^ New West." 



FINIS. 



Erratum.— On page 89 read Attila for Atilla. 



New and Final Volume of Bayard Taylor's Travels. 



G. P. Putnam & Son will publish early in 1869 

BY-WAYS OF EUROPE, 

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